B-52s first two albums are absolutely brilliant. They were just breaking the rules with their instruments, vocals, songwriting, and recording, and (importantly) making great music.

To this day, playing side 1 of the first album starting with "Planet Claire" late at night just puts me in a mood that is hard to describe.

I feel that they lost their songwriting edge after Ricky Wilson passed away in the mid 1980s and Strickland moved from drums to guitar. The later stuff was very pop oriented and slickly produced and expanded their audience, but it was missing that experimentation and irreverence from their early years.