auto

vs.


Elvis Costello:

1. 1977 My Aim Is True
2. 1978 This Year's Model
3. 1979 Armed Forces
4. 1980 Get Happy!!
5. 1981 Trust
6. 1981 Almost Blue
7. 1982 Imperial Bedroom
8. 1983 Punch The Clock
9. 1984 Goodbye Cruel World
10. 1986 King Of America
11. 1986 Blood & Chocolate
12. 1989 Spike
13. 1991 Mighty Like A Rose
14. 1993 The Juliet Letters
15. 1994 Brutal Youth
16. 1995 Kojak Variety
17. 1996 All This Useless Beauty
18. 1996 Costello & Nieve
19. 1998 Painted From Memory
20. 2001 For The Stars
21. 2002 When I Was Cruel
22. 2003 North
23. 2004 The Delivery Man
24. 2004 Il Sogno
25. 2005 Piano Jazz: Costello/McPartland
26. 2006 My Flame Burns Blue
27. 2006 The River In Reverse
28. 2008 Momofuku
29. 2009 Secret, Profane & Sugarcane

Tom Petty:

1. 1976 Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers
2. 1978 You're Gonna Get It!
3. 1979 Damn The Torpedoes
4. 1981 Hard Promises
5. 1982 Long After Dark
6. 1985 Southern Accents
7. 1987 Let Me Up (I've Had Enough)
8. 1989 Full Moon Fever
9. 1991 Into The Great Wide Open
10. 1994 Wildflowers
11. 1996 Songs and Music from "She's the One"
12. 1999 Echo
13. 2002 The Last DJ
14. 2006 Highway Companion
15. 2010 Mojo

Elvis has put out roughly 2x the amount of albums but they both have arguably 5-6 classics to their name. Both got their start in the mid-seventies and both are still putting out albums today. Discuss!

Previous Battles:

Battle #1: Led Zeppelin Vs. The Who

Battle #2: REM Vs. U2

Battle #3: Ramones vs. The Clash

Battle #4: Bob Dylan vs. David Bowie

Battle #5: The Beach Boys vs. The Doors

auto

Crap! Something happened and my poll did not save. Can a mod assist?

Groucho

You should be able to just edit the original post.

statcat

I'd go with Petty for his 3 70s albums alone, don't really care for the rest so much.

Fist of Doom

Just click Edit on your OP. At the top right just above the post there's a Thread Tools dropdown menu. Select "add a poll." NOTE: Be sure to type your question in the poll question line. Otherwise, it won't post the poll.

The Black

Costello

auto

Sweet. Off to the "So, how often do you learn something new about the forum or forum software?" thread.

Thanks guys.

atlantamoi

Geez. Why is every one of these polls close for me? Petty has been more consistent. I actually am still interested in his new releases. For Costello, I don't care for anything he's done after 1989's "Spike" (not really even that interested in his new album, but I"ll check it out). I'll still pick Costello, though, for that run of work up to "King Of America".

The Antipodean

Hmm, interesting choice but Costello wins in a walk for me. I like a lot of Petty's stuff but he pretty much sticks to one general genre, but Costello is unafraid to try anything and continues putting out strong music today ("When I Was Cruel" is as good as ANY of his early work).

auto

It's Costello for me as well. Interesting looking at those discographies that Costello has never gone longer than 3 years between albums (and only went three years twice!) and Petty never went three years between albums until his last two. Very consistent over thirty years.

In the end though, Costello is still putting out strong albums while Petty hasn't really had a strong LP since the mid-nineties.

Supermallet

I love both, but Costello is definitely the more varied, interesting, and consistent. Plus, even Petty's best can't match the run of This Year's Model, Armed Forces, Get Happy!!, and Trust. Throw in Imperial Bedroom, Blood and Chocolate and King of America, and you've got a winner in Costello.

Also, for those who haven't listened to Costello since Spike, When I Was Cruel and The Delivery Man are both excellent albums.

cdollaz

Costello, easily.

NORML54601

I couldn't pick this one. Love em both.

Decker

I really like Elvis Costello. His two-disc Rhino GH album is one I have in frequent ipod rotation. But I LOVE Tom Petty and have for a long, long time. So it was an easy choice for me.

johnbook

I'm going with Tom Petty for his 80's material alone, such classic stuff, love all his work but the 80's stand out for me, never a big fan of Elvis Costello.

SkullOrchard

Elvis Costello

Mike86

I like Tom Petty but to me Elvis Costello has a more interesting catalog of music and his newer output continues to be decent. I haven't cared for the newer Tom Petty stuff for the most part.

GreenVulture

Elvis Costello is my all-time favorite musician, and I've listened to it all, from the Flip City demos made in 1975 to his contribution to the True Blood soundtrack this year. I also have a number of bootleg albums (even a few bootleg DVDs) and have enough b-sides, contributions, demos and other rarities that I could significantly expand the bonus discs found on the Rhino reissues (hell, I even made my own "bonus discs" for all of his post-1996 albums).

I guess what I'm saying is that I really like Elvis Costello.

Supermallet

Then why did you vote for Tom Petty?

GreenVulture

Because I like zigging when everyone thinks I'm gonna be zagging.

But in all seriousness, I did vote for Costello, looks like you misread.

Ky-Fi

Although I do love some of Petty's early singles, I like Costello's best stuff quite a bit more.

Rockmjd23

Tom Petty

PopcornTreeCt

Tom Petty

cungar

Exactly what I was going to say about Costello's first 3 albums. But In Elvis' case it's the first 5 that are almost perfect.

rexinnih

Elvis.