where next and that?

my pal sent me beyond the valley of the ultrahits and some of it's pretty fucking lovely but looking at wiki it seems to be atypically poppy and one of hundreds of releases that i have no frame of reference for navigating through. i'd prefer the ones with songs and that... i've not much patience for minimalist stuff. can anyone give me a run down of the stages in his career?

cheers

the tube screamy guitar is so wonderfully out of place on this record, makes me grin something rotten.