Elvis Costello doesn’t like to sit still for long. Less than a year ago, Costello released Hey Clockface, an album that he recorded with jazz musicians in Helsinki. Just last month, Costello released Spanish Model, a Spanish-language reimagining of his classic This Year’s Model. And now, Costello has announced the impending release of a really out-there project — a rock ‘n’ roll album.
Costello and his backing band the Imposters will release their new LP The Boy Named If early in 2022. In a press release, Costello says that the new album’s 13 songs “take us from the last days of a bewildered boyhood to that mortifying moment when you are told to stop acting like a child — which for most men (and perhaps a few gals too) can be any time in the next 50 years.”
Costello co-produced the album with Sebastian Krys, and first single “Magnificent Hurt” is a straight-up rocker that sounds a whole lot like something that Costello might’ve made in the late ’70s. The song has a pounding backbeat, some perfect organ interjections from longtime bandmate Steve Nieve, and a lead vocal with some real snarl in it. Below, listen to “Magnificent Hurt” and check out the new album’s tracklist.
TRACKLIST:
01 “Farewell, OK”
02 “The Boy Named If”
03 “Penelope Halfpenny”
04 “The Difference”
05 “What If I Can’t Give You Anything But Love?”
06 “Paint The Red Rose Blue”
07 “Mistook Me For A Friend”
08 “My Most Beautiful Mistake” (Feat. Nicole Atkins)
09 “Magnificent Hurt”
10 “The Man You Love To Hate”
11 “The Death Of Magic Thinking”
12 “Trick Out The Truth”
13 “Mr. Crescent”
The Boy Named If is out 1/14/22.
