No contest. David Byrne is quite good, though inconsistently so.* Elvis Costello is fucking brilliant, and always has been, and is amazingly prolific in the bargain.
*Just got the CD+DVD version of The Knee Plays. Really good stuff, but it does go on and on…and the video version is just tedious.
Why in the world would anyone want to make love to either?
I will agree that Elvis Costello is brilliant. I will not agree that he’s consistent. The bulk of his 90s output was pretty weak. (Mighty Like a Rose, anyone?) Only by the end of the decade did he start getting some of that spark back, but none of the records he’s made in the last twenty years compares to his first decade.
Well, I think Brutal Youth (1994) was really really good, and I also really like Momofuku, the record (yes, record) he just released a few months ago, very much harking back to the ‘Blood and Chocolate’ sound.
YMMV of course.
And I do like ‘And She Was’ but I don’t see it as a makin’-love-to kinda song, either…
Purely opinion, of course, but I disagree that Mighty Like a Rose was weak (though it may not be in his top ten); I’d say that Brutal Youth was as good as anything he’s done; and All This Useless Beauty and When I Was Cruel are similarly great.
“And She Was”? No. “Dance on Vaseline”? Oh my yes.
Seconded (or thirded or whatever… havent read any farther in the thread as this sums my thoughts nicely)
+1 - Not close, IMHO.
Byrne is an insufferably pompous and artistically blindered jerk who gives me a violent case of the so-what’s.
Elvis Costello is a bit of a jerk, but writes cool songs.
Costello.
Out for a drink? Costello by a mile. I find Byrne too precious by half.
Force me to play a 20-song cabaret of their songs? Costello. Talking Heads were always better at a vibe than a song.
Force me to listen to one of their records 5 times in a row? Well, I’ll give it to Byrne and Remain in Light.
Or is it a fistfight? Costello is bound to be scrappier, but Byrne has a really large head (I saw him in a NYC bookstore once, it’s remarkable) and may be hard to KO. Draw.
See, to me, your first sentence would make your 2nd sentence: Winner: Byrne
Love your user name…I am, you are? Ausgezeichnet!
All This Useless Beauty is the only one of the bunch I think is okay. Mighty Like a Rose I would consider his second worst work, next to Goodbye Cruel World and perhaps Spike or even North.
Anyhow, as to the OP, it’s really difficult. I think Elvis Costello is one of the greatest songwriters ever. He is in a league of his own. However, I usually prefer Byrne’s work. So, being as objective as possible, I’d say Elvis Costello; personally, it’s David Byrne for me.
Fan of both (in their respective heydays), but I’ve got to give it to Costello on song quality alone.
Ditto. Costello is simply a stunningly great lyricist, who is also capable of investing great feeling in most of his work ( I like his covers a lot as well ) and I could give a crap about either’s venture outside of music.
But I do find the question interesting in the sense that if pressed I’m always inclined to list either Costello or Talking Heads as my “favorite band.” I don’t really have a favorite band, I don’t think. But those are the two that always pop into my head when the question comes up. So I’ve always kind of idly wondered what the commonality is between the two that attracts me so powerfully.
Must I choose between them? I must?
OK, David Byrne, then.
Edited to add: it’s more a result of familiarity than anything else. I grew up listening to Talking Heads, and I even like his solo work. I can see why people would find Costello’s lyrics to be more personal, but I’ve always liked Byrne’s postmodernish perspective. YMMV.
Beat me to it, so this is just another lane “me too” post. Exactly the albums I was going to nominate.
That “weak” 90’s output includes two of those three works of genius above: *Brutal Youth *[1994] and *All This Useless Beauty *[1996], which are every bit as good as, say, Armed Forces. Indeed I would say the late 90s were a weaker period for him, with the fairly lame collaborations Painted from Memory [Bacharach, 1998] and For the Stars [Anne Sofie von Otter, 2001] as the only original releases between 1996 and 2002.
Well, nothing he’s done after Imperial Bedroom or perhaps King of America has really done much for me. He had pretty much a streak of perfect albums through Imperial Bedroom, and I don’t feel his 90s output matches the perfection of his earliest work. Then again, that is setting a real high bar for anyone. All This Useless Beauty is the closest he’s gotten to that bar. I wasn’t much a fan of Brutal Youth, but perhaps I should revisit it. It’s been a long time since I’ve heard it, and maybe my perspective will have changed.
I’d say his streak pretty much ended with Trust, and then started up again with Imperial Bedroom (through King of America and Blood & Chocolate and, if you’re feeling generous, Spike - after that he became wildly uneven). Goodbye Cruel World was pretty much worthless, IMO, aside from “Inch By Inch” and “Peace In Our Time”. And Punch The Clock had some great songs but a lot of filler. Still, My Aim Is True through Get Happy!! was all brilliant, and Trust itself just shy of that. So, as I said, he’s got my vote.
If I’m counting the votes correctly, so far Costello’s ahead 14-7.
The first time I heard “And She Was,” I thought, “Really cool song, but musically it sounds a lot like a ripoff of Madness’s ‘Bed & Breakfast Man.’”
My vote’s for Elvis, though there’s a lot of Byrne/Talking Heads I’m unfamiliar with. (By the way, how much of the Talking Heads’ greatness can we attribute to Byrne, and how much to other band members & collaborators?)
For what it’s worth, there was an Elvis Costello Appreciation Thread a while back.