Putting The Dukes in a separate box from XTC seemed more and more pointless to me the more I dived into their catalogue. They may be aping various older artists but it's not like they didn't do that on their regular albums already (even if it's not usually so obvious), and Colin and Andy's songwriting styles shine through as much as ever. The current versions of the Dukes albums that you can buy are credited as "XTC as The Dukes Of Stratosphear" so clearly the band isn't interested in maintaining the ruse.
Chips is a pretty convenient comp, but I'm not really convinced it's the best presentation for the material since the two records are pretty different from one another (25 Oclock is straight-up pastiche that feels like a reaction to the tepid reception Big Express and Mummer had with their heavily 80s reliant stylistic choices, and Psonic Psunspot feels like a band following up their greatest success with joyful abandon), and are both very much worth discussing as individual entities. Also the original artwork is some of the best XTC ever had but Chip's artwork straight-up sucks.

I like a lot of it but O&L is still among their weakest records for me. On a track by track basis I find a lot to like, but it all kind of turns into overload when I play the album as a whole. Mayor of Simpleton is definitely the best track. I don't think you'll find many who would disagree with that. that song is awesome.

Anybody else like Wasp Star as much as me? That album is extremely overlooked. It gets some crap for being overly slick, but it's not any slicker than Nonesuch really and it's shorter. Some great tunes on that one.