beatles--let it be. i'll submit that song-for-song this is their best album. granted, "one after 909" is a throwaway and "for you blue" mere filler, but side one is essentially perfect. the focus is justifiably on paul's opuses, but i always thought "dig a pony" and "don't let me down" were among john's finest.
elvis costello--taking liberties. an oddly coherent grab bag of outtakes and b-sides and as good a testament to his compositional genius as anything--this guy throws away better songs than 99% of his peers can even dream about. fully half of these 20 tunes rank with his best work, with "chelsea", "big tears" and "tiny steps" rocking as hard as anything he's done.
