|
Most of us mellow with age; there's no sin in that. Hell, nowadays I can even cope with people playing U2 in my presence. But whilst mellow doesn't have to mean bland, it can sometimes blunt a musician's art.
For me, for a while Elvis Costello has been too much of the elder lyricist rather than the cutting iconoclast he once was. Okay, no one expects an angry Peter Pan, but let's face it, with everything going on in the world, there's plenty to get heated up about.
With The Boy Named If, Elvis puts his teeth back in. This music has energy. There's a sense that these are songs he had to write and which have to be heard. He growls his trademark wordplay: "I was working miracles for petty cash and chemicals" ("Mistook Me For a Friend"); "I speak low and intimate / Like a cardboard sophisticate" ("Magnificent Hurt"). Here, though, the lyrics don't just sit there, pouting and waiting to be admired. They are part of the music, organically at the core of the song. There is passion in his voice — Elvis sings like he means it — and dexterity in his underrated guitar playing.
While this is most definitely an Elvis Costello album, he is reunited with the Imposters, and he is definitely a part of a band — which is especially impressive considering that the parts were recorded separately because of the pandemic.
This is driving pop. Steve Nieve's psycho fairground organ powers them on throughout. Up front in the mix, Pete Thomas's drums have never been better. On upright bass, comparative newcomer Davey Faragher gives it that late-night, small-band vibe that Costello captured on Trust so much earlier in his career. Thoughts of Costello's late '70s/early '80s string of classic albums are brought to mind.
The Boy Named If sits easily beside them. It's that good.
| 
