The Boy Named If was produced by Elvis Costello and 13-time Latin Grammy producer, Sebatian Krys who also co-helmed Spanish Model, Costello's 2021 super cool Spanish reimagining of This Year's Model. And like 2018’s Look Now and 2020’s Hey Clockface, the album continues the Imposters' (more or less the Attractions) trend of rave-ups for the new millennium.

Costello said of the album, “The full title of this record is ‘The Boy Named If (And Other Children’s Stories).’ ‘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.” He continues that the the songs on the album "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 can be any time in the next fifty years.”

Besides the usual formats, according to Costello's website, it comes in a deluxe edition which includes an 88-page hardback storybook featuring "thirteen illustrated short stories, which have the same titles as the songs on the record. Some of these fables set the scene for the songs, others are sequels, or a clue or hint to what might have been going on before the music began."