so far i’ve done all the studio albums, all the dicks picks, all the road trips, all the downloads series, and all of europe 72.

The debut is whacky, barely even sounds like them. pretty fun though.
Anthem of the Sun is interesting as an experiment, but proper shows from the era blow this hodgepodge of an album out of the water.
Aoxomoxoa is similar to the debut in that it sounds so different that that alone becomes part of the appeal. much of it is a psychedlic mess like Anthem, but I like how goofy and silly much of it is.

WD/AB are both terrific and probably the only times the Dead really sucessfully struck a balance of studio albums not sounding like the live versions while still sounding great in their own right.

Sides 1 and 2 of Live/dead is the perfect encapsulation of 60s dead but i usually stop the album after that.
Europe 72 is an ideal intro to the band I agree. It def helped the band click for me. I like the overdubs fine on this one actually, i dont think they detract from it at all.

Wake of the Flood and Mars Hotel are such weird records. They were at their peak on stage during those years but you’d never know it from the wimpy ass renditions of live classics on Flood or the kinda terrible tracklist of Mars Hotel. “Unbroken Chain” was eventually turned into “What Would I Want Sky?” by Animal Collective and that song rules.

Blues For Allah is one of their best records but the full album performed live on One from the Vault (8/13/75) is so good that 99% of the time when I want to hear that album I’ll just put that show on instead.

Pretty sure Steal Your Face is one of the only official Dead releases I outright skipped.