The Boy Named If
by Elvis Costello & The Imposters
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Elvis Costello & The Imposters bestography
The Boy Named If is ranked 14th best out of 37 albums by Elvis Costello on BestEverAlbums.com.
The best album by Elvis Costello is This Year's Model which is ranked number 327 in the list of all-time albums with a total rank score of 5,074.
(N.B. Bestographies include all albums by an artist (and their variations), but do not include albums ranked outside the top 100,000).
Listen to The Boy Named If on YouTube
The Boy Named If track list
The tracks on this album have an average rating of 74 out of 100 (all tracks have been rated).
The Boy Named If rankings
Calculated from aggregate positions across 60,000 charts (2 million album rankings). Click to see how the rankings are calculated (Last updated: 2 hours ago)
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The Boy Named If ratings
Average Rating = (n ÷ (n + m)) × av + (m ÷ (n + m)) × AVwhere:
av = trimmed mean average rating an item has currently received.
n = number of ratings an item has currently received.
m = minimum number of ratings required for an item to appear in a 'top-rated' chart (currently 10).
AV = the site mean average rating.
Showing latest 5 ratings for this album. | Show all 67 ratings for this album.
| Rating | Date updated | Member | Album ratings | Avg. album rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ! | 07/15/2026 00:51 | Exist-en-ciel | 15,371 | 70/100 |
| ! | 06/12/2026 13:07 | TonySayers61 | 25,200 | 64/100 |
| ! | 05/06/2026 08:28 | cicadelic | 13,560 | 73/100 |
| ! | 04/03/2026 21:28 |  Graeme2 | 4,907 | 80/100 |
| ! | 03/03/2026 08:27 | dukeboxkool | 2,225 | 72/100 |
Rating metrics:
Outliers can be removed when calculating a mean average to dampen the effects of ratings outside the normal distribution. This figure is provided as the trimmed mean. A high standard deviation can be legitimate, but can sometimes indicate 'gaming' is occurring. Consider a simplified example* of an item receiving ratings of 100, 50, & 0. The mean average rating would be 50. However, ratings of 55, 50 & 45 could also result in the same average. The second average might be more trusted because there is more consensus around a particular rating (a lower deviation).
(*In practice, some albums can have several thousand ratings)
This album has a Bayesian average rating of 70.1/100, a mean average of 69.1/100, and a trimmed mean (excluding outliers) of 69.8/100. The standard deviation for this album is 13.9.
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The Boy Named If comments
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Graeme2 03/03/2023 23:25 | #294675 | TOP COMMENT
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This is a ridiculously good record considering how far into his career and age etc. If you're a fan in any way it's a must hear. Exceeded my expectations tremendously.
Along with "Look now" this is one of the great latter day Costello releases. I don't think it's too much of a claim to suggest that this will become a top ten Elvis album. It's utterly compelling with an urgent sense of energy and grit. If "Look now" is Costello's latter day "Imperial bedroom" then "The Boy named if" is his latter day "Blood & chocolate". Superb.
Elvis Costello, accompanied by a red hot sizzling Imposters lineup, is on fine form and shows that there’s still plenty of life in this old dog yet ;))
As of me writing this (February 1, 2022), this is my favorite album released in 2022. All but three songs ("The Man You Love to Hate," "The Death of Magic Thinking," and "Trick Out the Truth") are great, and it's on its way to becoming a classic (to me, at least).
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