This sort of mirrors my thoughts on XTC too. Amazing band, but they had some consistency issues on their albums, especially once they started overstuffing them (Oranges & Lemons and Nonsuch come to mind).

My favorites would be Skylarking, Chips from the Chocolate Fireball, Black Sea, and Drums and Wires. I also think Big Express is tremendously underrated, although I'd rate the above four before it.