Lyre of Orpheus is perhaps Cave's most mainstream
Let Love In is my favourite - nice variety of songs/styles
Tender Prey has the Mercy Seat and Deanna as standouts
Murder Ballads was the first album of his I bought and that led me on to all of them
and for your fifth - No More Shall We Part has got some sweet stuff on it and also God Is In the House - arguably his best song ever - I remember him doing it on Later... so it's probably on You Tube.
If you are new to his stuff though, the Best of.. cd is a good starting point.

People will try to convince you that Nick Cave has got better and better. Ignore them. These are the five albums you should go for:
1) Henry's Dream
2) Your Funeral...My Trial
3) Kicking Against The Pricks
4) From Her To Eternity
5) Tender Prey (or The Good Son or Murder Ballads!)

It's also worth getting the Birthday Party compilation "Hits", the live album "Live Seeds" and the DVD of Bad Seeds videos.

value for money and brilliance has to be the double album ' Lyre of Orpheus/ Abattoir Blues' and the slower 'Boatmans Call' although i could not argue with any of the above. He has managed to be original on most albums and they are always interesting lyrically.

How about Non-stop Blind devotion to RT.

Live Seeds - one of my favourite live albums by ANYBODY, and the thunderous version of "The Mercy Seat" which opens the album ruined the studio version ever after for me.
Murder Ballads - if you've a taste for the over-the-top, grand guignol side of Nick Cave, this is the one to go for. Brimming with gallows humour.
The Best Of is a terrific overview, and will give you some idea of which early-to-middle period stuff would be worth your further investigation.
Abattoir Blues / Lyre Of Orpheus is prime-quality Cave pretty much from start to finish.
Dig! Lazarus Dig! - refreshed by his Grinderman side-project, this has late-period Cave's lyrical sophistication plus the musical grit he rediscovered via Grinderman.

this is great and gives me plenty to investigate especially the Mojo feature next month,but what about RT?
I have bought Action Packed which is splendid , i just need to know the next stop.

Long overdue remastered versions of the first four Nick Cave albums ('From Her To Eternity', 'The First Born Is Dead', 'Kicking Against The Pricks and Your Funeral', 'My Trial') are on the way.

.....but here's my tuppence worth. I would say *must haves* are Rumour and Sigh, I Want To See The Bright Lights Tonight and Sweet Warrior.

The first has his most famous song(1952 Vincent Black Lightning)along with other gems such as Jimmy Shands and Keep Your Distance.

The second is along with Linda Thompson. A dozen or so songs and not a bad one in there, especially the title track and When I get To The Border.

Sweet Warrior is his most recent release(this year? last year?..can't remember)and is my particular favoutite. I don't know enough about him to know who he is venting his anger at, but he's pissed off with someone. It's not all anger though. There are a few stories in there too. Of course there is plenty
of his unique style of blistering guitar work.

I also have Mock Tudor, Mirror Blue, Front Parlour Ballads and The Old Kit Bag which are fine but outside my top 3.

The least favourite of mine are the Austin City Limits(DVD)and
1000 Years Of Popular Music. I've tried both a good few times but just don't get them, though I'm sure they will grow on me eventually.

ALL NICK'S ARE GOOD
GO FOR THE LATEST - DIG.. AND WORK BACKWARDS - MAYBE CHECK OUT THE BEST OF ( WHICH LEAVES FAR TOO MUCH OUT).

IF PRESSED - HENRY'S DREAM FOR AGGRESSIVE NICK

BOATMAN FOR THE POETIC , POLLY JEAN -SHE GAVE ME THE ARSE BALLADEER

NOW CAN ANYONE NAME ONE POST RICHARD AND LINDA ALBUM THAT ISN'T HALF FULL OF CRAP.

A GREAT GUITARIST HIGHLY OVERRATED ALBUMS

TONY

Difficult to select just 5 from a 40 year career of course but here goes:
Fairport years:
Either Unhalfbricking or Liege and Lief (I would pick the former)
Richard and Linda:
Either I Want to See the Bright Lights Tonight or Pour Down Like Silver (I would pick the latter, though some would see this as an eccentric choice)
Shoot Out the Lights
Richard Solo:
Amnesia
Either More Guitar or Semi-Detached Mock Tudor (you'll need to go to the RT website for the last one - http://www.richardthompson-music.com/Merch.asp - but it really is worth it to here Richard's astonishing live guitar playing.)

Daring Adventures is great as are Rumor and Sigh, Amnesia and Mock Tudor. Personally I dont play but own Small Town romance and Front Parlour Ballads. Solo acoustic he is great live but it can be a bit much on disc. Disagree about 1000 years of popular music which I think is fantastic and shows the versatility of the man. If you are going for one of the box sets Watching the Dark is vastly superior to RT which is a mish mash and has some badly recorded works on it. Watching the Dark does feature the hard to find From Galway to Graceland which is a gem.

One tip - Amazon have a lot of his earlier discs including with Linda at around £4.00 at present or they did when I was surfing earlier today.