I've always liked them a lot, both studio and live. Mike Ratledge sounded like no one else. Their first album is very good for what it is, but is a rock album with Robert Wyatt and Kevin Ayers out front (though Ratledge gets to do his thing very well). Hugh Hopper replacing Ayers pushed them in more of a jazz-rock hybrid direction, and the addition of Elton Dean and the other horn players on Third did so even more. 2-4 are a peak (4 is my personal favorite), and Bundles, with Allan Holdsworth, is another peak, but all of their albums from the first one through Live in Paris are well worthwhile. I like their live stuff quite a bit when the sound quaility is up to snuff, and find it to be something very different than Weather Report/Miles Davis.