Elvis Costello Releases New Single And Announces Album

It’s Available For Preorder

Elvis Costello & the Imposters have announced a new album titled “The Boy Named If”, and they previewed it with its first single, “Magnificent Hurt”. It arrives on January 14 via EMI/Capitol Records in a variety of formats – CD, vinyl, cassette, and digital download.

“The full title of this record is The Boy Named If (And Other Children’s Stories),” Costello said in a press release. “‘IF,’ is a nickname for your imaginary friend; your secret self, the one who knows everything you deny, the one you blame for the shattered crockery and the hearts you break, even your own. You can hear more about this ‘Boy’ in a song of the same name.”

“Once upon a time, when I didn’t know what a kiss could do and didn’t even dare to caress, the way ahead was a mystery;” he added, “a departing from that magic state called innocence for the pain that leads to pleasure and all that jazz.”

Costello called Steve Nieve’s organ as “the icing on the cake, the cherry, and the little silver balls”.

He also said that the 13 tracks “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.”

The Boy Named If Tracklist

1. “Farewell, OK”
2. “The Boy Named If”
3. “Penelope Halfpenny”
4. “The Difference”
5. “What If I Can’t Give You Anything but Love?”
6. “Paint the Red Rose Blue”
7. “Mistook Me for a Friend”
8. “My Most Beautiful Mistake” featuring Nicole Atkins
9. “Magnificent Hurt”
10. “The Man You Love to Hate”
11. “The Death of Magic Thinking”
12. “Trick Out the Truth”
13. “Mr. Crescent”