Two very different splinters of the 1970s punk and new wave movements. Both legends. Quirky. Traditional. Arty. Melodic. Choose.

Costello, hands down.

This is a real tough one for me. I'm gonna have to think about it.

Talking Heads, who quit while they were...erm...ahead.

Love Elvis's 70s/80s work, but have to admit I don't listen to his latest stuff very much, outside of a song here and there.

I guess I'm picking the Heads, too.

Man, these are getting tough! Next thing you know, Taft is going to be asking us to choose between the Allmans and Skynyrd.

would that be that tough?

Not sure this is a fair matchup because like Jimbo said, the Talking Heads quit while they were ... well, you know. On the other hand, Costello, being a solo act with several more albums, has had a lot more opportunities to drop the ball. Not to mention that they have very little in common other than the era that they emerged on the scene. I'm also going to have to think about this one...

Costello. Easily.

producers of 2 of my all time desert island albums Remain in light & This years model. after that though I'd take My Aim Is True, Armed Forces, Get Happy or Trust over any other Talking Heads Album

I wanted to say my pants are on fire and I'm covered in baby oil and I'm hungry. I really, really did. But it's not true, and I'm not much for lying. Costello by a very, very wide margin. Even if you only looked at his career while the Heads were together, I'd still go with Elvis in a heartbeat. Better songwriter, better singer.

Nah, I was just kidding. Skynyrd, right? (This one was tough, though.)

I love Talking Heads. Fantastic peak, and as has been noted they went out while they were on top. David Byrne also went on to have a very interesting solo career.

But I have to go with Elvis here. His peak was SO high it easily, easily washes away any questions about his later work.My Aim Is True, This Year's Model, Armed Forces, and Get Happy!! four years in a row? Freakin' amazing. The man is a fantastic songwriter.

Bingo! And still creating (occasionally) relevant music to this day.

Okay, I thought about it and I think I have to go with Costello too, for most of the reasons Taft mentioned above. That was indeed a heck of a streak he had between My Aim Is True and Get Happy ... heck, I'd even include everything through Imperial Bedroom. But for me he still only wins this one by a hair, and if you asked me on a day I was in the mood for something a bit more quirky I might have voted for David Byrne and company.

Gee, this is a close one. So different. In terms of songwriting, Costello easily. But as performers, I like them fairly equally. I own one more Heads disc than I do Costello and when I look at what I consider to be their classic songs, I come up with one more Heads song there, too. So Heads it is, but it's a tough call. I'm 50.01 versus 49.99 percent on this one.

Here's my list of Elvis albums I DON'T think are Absolutely F*#king Brilliant:

Almost Blue
Goodbye Cruel World
The Juliet Letters
All This Useless Beauty.....and everything that's come since.

He's been in a serious slump for a while, but holy god he was amazing for SUCH a long time. Basically three bad albums in 20 years and a dozen earth-shattering ones.

Like it says on the cover of his debut (if you look hard enough)...ELVIS IS KING.

I absolutely love Momofuku. I'll admit I'm highly biased, but for my money it is his best rock/pop album since Brutal Youth. I think Brutal Youth is great, but could have been trimmed by a song or two.

The Name Of My Choice Is Talking Heads.

Both are good for me; but I'm content with a 2 cd TH best of & need lots more EC.

I'm just the opposite of Geff. After the first 3 EC albums I'm good with a few songs. But All of the THeads albums have a lot to offer me. And the first five albums are, for my money, absolutely perfect

Not to mention that Talking Heads are the subject of the greatest concert movie ever made.

I love this post.