Alternatives to Latest From Bowie, Petty

If you’re thinking about buying the latest “new” album by future Rock and Roll Hall of Fame possibilities David Bowie and Tom Petty, you might also consider the latest “old” albums by the two artists.

Bowie, whose new “Tin Machine II” album is available on Victory Records, released a trio of collaborations in the late ‘70s with Brian Eno that were considered too radical and inaccessible by many fans who had embraced Bowie’s more mainstream pop-soul-rock excursions in “Young Americans” and “Station to Station.” Still, the three albums contain some of his finest and most enduring moments.

Just released by Rykodisc as the latest installments in the company’s continuing Bowie reissue program, the albums each contain two or more bonus tracks.

Similarly, Petty and the Heartbreakers band, whose new “Into the Great Wide Open” album was released recently on MCA Records, didn’t become a major force in mainstream rock until their acclaimed “Damn the Torpedoes” album broke into the national Top 10 in 1979. Still, the group’s promise was telegraphed in its two earlier albums, both of which have just been released by MCA in association with Gone Gator Records. No bonus tracks, however.

The Bowie reissues:

* “Low” (1977)--Yet another dramatic change of direction for the man of 1,000 styles, this time influenced equally by the synthesizer detachment of the German band Kraftwerk and Eno’s dreamlike ambience. The result was a beautifully layered collection whose themes of obsession and isolation were reflected in such anxious titles as “Breaking Glass” and “Always Crashing in the Same Car.”

* “Heroes” (1977)--Though the album dealt with some of the same themes, often against even harsher backgrounds, there was a greater sense of idealism and hope in the key tracks.

* “Lodger” (1979)--If this anxious, unsettling package was the most acclaimed of the three albums originally, it now seems the most disjointed and distant. The lyrics, especially, seem too often forced.

The Petty albums:

* “Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers” (1976)--The production work sounds awfully thin now, but the best songs still carry a raw rock energy that for all the talk about Roger McGuinn’s influence on Petty, seems as indebted to the Rolling Stones as the Byrds, especially in such sinuous, nocturnal pieces as “Breakdown” and “Strangered in the Night.” Includes “American Girl.”

* “You’re Gonna Get It” (1978)--While not as fresh as the debut or as artistically framed as “Torpedoes,” the album was an important step in Petty’s evolution. Highlighted by songs of commitment (“When the Time Comes”) and faith (“Listen to Her Heart”).