Yeah their debut EP, which as you say is on 'Dead Letter Office', is great. Even moreso the live versions on Olympia. I haven't heard the rest of that compilation in forever, but I don't recall the other stuff being great. A couple of Velvet Underground covers, I recall. They were a big influence on the band.

They're an interesting band with a very interesting discog and history. In short, of the IRS albums I would recommend starting with Murmur, Reckoning, and Lifes (sic) Rich Pageant, which is possibly their best album imo.

I think the WB albums are where my taste starts to differ a lot from other people. Up is my fave. Around the Sun is one of my faves. I love Monster too. I think those 3 albums are probably the most maligned in their discog tho. Monster was kinda the death of them being one of the biggest bands in the world.

I also love New Adventures in Hi-Fi, and as I said Accelerate is definitely a high point. Short and sweet. I think their final album, Collapse Into Now was great too.

Their commercial high point, Green, Out of Time, and Automatic For The People are for me probably the least interesting and consistent albums in their discog, tho each of them has their share of outstanding tracks.

Automatic is generally considered their career high point tho (and Murmur from the early years). I could personally never really get into it as a whole though. But it does have some great songs on it.