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You've faux-pas-ed with a needless definite article. Be ashamed!

I jest. Personally I think you have the best stuff. Also get the Donkeys compilation for odds and sods. The next two albums they went a bit soul, with mixed results. The 6th album, Waiting for The Moon is a bit of a return to the first three albums. It's not as good as them but still worth it. And has the gorgeous My Oblivion. After that album Tindersticks lost half their band (including the very influential Mr Hinchcliffe). I'm not really up with their post-split work. I see some good word. What I've heard of it hasn't impressed me massively but I should maybe give it more of a chance. But I'm sure someone else can advice you about the later albums.

Personally i think waiting for the moon is quite average. However after the first two albums Simple Pleasures is their best.

Is in my top 5 albums of the year.

Playing a mix of tracks off I and II, quite a few of which are better than the studio versions.

Waiting for the Moon is also pretty ace though. Everything else is really sub-par. The last two albums are best avoided.

is their finest album IMO. Also as mentioned above, beg steal or borrow a copy of Live at the Bloomsbury, which features definitive versions of songs off the first 2 albums.

In my opinion they've never released a duff album, and when they're on top form - Tindersticks I/II, Simple Pleasure, The Something Rain - they're untouchable.

The ones you've got are incredible. Agree with Waiting for the Moon being strong.

Simple Pleasure and Can our Love... have a different feel. Both have amazing individual tracks, but work slightly less well as albums IMO.

The last 3 with the reduced line up. Hungry Saw and Falling Down a Mountain are both really solid albums, but felt a little like a band finding their feet again, but The Something Rain is absolutely stunning. Started listening to it again in the last day or two and was going to come on here to rave about it.

can I also point out that the 4th album is Simple Pleasure, NOT Simple Pleasures? Ta.

were the first two Tindersticks albums I bought so perhaps this has skewed my opinion slightly, but I think they deserve more appreciation than they seem to get. They are quite dissimilar to their early stuff, but The Hungry Saw is a great, sprawling album, and FDAM has this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_T16pwMjbOY

1,2 and 3 are going to be different from the rest with the possible exception of the last one, The Something Rain. You'd be better to burn these out - and the Bloomsbury live album (one of the best live albums by anybody ever), and then approach the other stuff.

Everyone has different highs and lows with the other albums - but I think most will agree there are some magical songs interspersed amongst less memorable moments - here's mine

Dying Slowly (Can our love)
She Rode Me Down, Factory Girls and Piano Music (Falling down a mountain)
I've Been Loving You Too Long (cover on Donkeys compilation album)
Can We Start Again, If You're Looking For A Way Out (Simple Pleasure)
Boobar, All The Love (The Hungry Saw)
Until The Morning Comes, Trying To Find A Home (Waiting for the moon)

I can't reiterate enough how magical The Something Rain is. They themselves acknowledge it's the closest they've come to the incredibleness of their first album. It's a synthesis of old and new Tindersticks, and I think as some of the replies on this thread show, there are people that would swear upon it as the album of the year.