Further thoughts on their evolution (baby):
The first 2 albums were consistent from from to back. Pretty much great all the way through.
With Vitality there was an odd mix of styles for me. Standard songs (standouts for me - Nothingman, Corduroy, Better Man, Whipping), rough garage tracks (Spin The Black, Last Exit, Satan's Bed), some random arbitrary stuff (Pry To, Bugs, Aye Davinita) and some rather mediocre tracks (Not For You, Tremorchrist).
The highs on that album are incredible, the rest is so-so to garbage.
To a less-pronounced extent they stayed in the mode for a while. Some great tracks on all records but until Avocado and then Backspacer there was no record I'd play from front to back for a decade or so.
Still digging Dark Matter despite the snare sound. Glad to have them back after Gigaton.