"The Boy Named If" by Elvis Costello & the Imposters

Elvis Costello returns with smart, feisty 'The Boy Named If' | Review

Welcome back to Thrak Attack! What's your adventure? Today's adventure takes us back to the days of classic rock and roll where influences came from blues music and not hip hop, where the genre felt young and vibrant and no longer stale! Elvis Costello & the Imposters brings us back to that time with their latest album titled "The Boy Named If".

This is Elvis Costello's 32nd and his 4th with the Imposters and it shows. It shows their talent and experience in the field of rock and roll unfortunately it also shows just how stale rock music has begun. The album is really good though! It sounds great with every instrument having it's time to shine and sticking out. The production of the album is spot on!

The album also is really full coming in with 13 tracks and 52 minutes which is an impressive length but sometimes that helps and album sometimes that hurts it. In this album's case it hurts, it has a lot of filler music in it. There are some really great tracks on this album such as the opener "Farewell, OK", "The Difference" and "Mistook Me For a Friend". but the majority of the album bleeds together and doesn't make an impact other than take up time.

When I review albums I take a 5 star average rating for the songs and then points for production, concept, musicianship, aesthetic, and overall feeling. This album gets a 2 star rating with points for production, musicianship, and overall feeling.

"The Boy Named If" by Elvis Costello & the Imposters get 5 out of 10 stars.

All the Best, Ross

Comments

"Covers" by Cat Power

Welcome back to Thrak Attack! What's your adventure? This adventure takes us to many genres of music covered by Cat Power! From Iggy Pop to Lana Del Rey to Billie Holiday, this album takes to many genres but somehow feels stale through Cat Power's style. I knew this was a cover album and was excited to hear all the different songs sung in a new style. Unfortunately these songs are more than just the surface songs and singles. These are lesser known songs from big artists. I loved trying to guess who's song it was and then looking it up afterwards. Even though the artists she covers are from all sorts of genres this album is such a drag to listen to. The 12 songs slog on for 43 minutes and never feel like it's going anywhere. It's like she took the personality from the different artists but not any of the passion. I felt very bored listening to the songs. Two of the songs did make it onto my 2022 playlist including "Pa Pa Power" and "White Mustang...

Fraggle Rock: Back to the Rock

Welcome back to Thrak Attack! What's your adventure? Today's adventure takes us deep into the walls and underneath the ground to the land of Fraggle Rock. But this isn't the first time we've been here, we remember this place from long ago and it's time to go back. A reboot of a series that ended in 1987 is just what Apple TV+ needs right? Let's find out! Fraggle Rock: Back to the Rock has 13 episodes in it's first season and it's just as charming as you remember. The muppets look as good as ever, the characters a charming, and the world building in this show is actually quite good! Each episode has a fun adventure with a pretty solid through line of exploring "outer space" which is just our world. There are some pretty great jokes that go along with this too. In the pilot episode one of the characters gets attacked by a dog, when telling his friends about it he says "I was attacked by the most vicious space monster" and it cuts to t...

Astroneer

Welcome back to Thrak Attack, what's your adventure? Today takes us to many distant planets and worlds in a video game of exploring. Astroneer is a game originally released on early access in 2016 and was officially released in 2019 on Windows and the Xbox One and officially released on the Nintendo Switch today. The game focuses on exploration of new worlds and it is a joy! Unfortunately this is a terrible port and I know this because the reviews upon initial release were very positive. Astroneer on the Nintendo Switch is a port from Windows and Xbox One in 2019. I know that this game works on a controller because it was on the Xbox, but for whatever reason I can't get out of the first section. I don't know if the button mapping is off, or if the way it was built on PC really doesn't translate to a controller, or if I'm just an idiot! But this game does not work on a controller. The visuals are great and are a cross between Legend of Zelda: The Windwaker and Min...

Thrak Attack

Search This Blog