IMO:

Charles Mingus - The Black Saint and The Sinner Lady
The Clash - London Calling
Captain Beefheart - Trout Mask Replica

The Mahavishnu Orchestra - The Inner Mounting Flame

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...albumcover.jpg

Sleater-Kinney - The Woods
XTC - Mummer
Iron Maiden - Piece of Mind
The Beatles - Revolver
NWA - Straight Outta Compton
Talking Heads - Remain in Light
Led Zeppelin - III
John Coltrane - A Love Supreme
Throbbing Gristle - 20 Jazz Funk Greats
Bill Nelson - Quit Dreaming and Get on the Beam
Renaldo & The Loaf - Arabic Yodeling
Frank Sinatra - Close to You and More

...Just to name a few

Just listened to Birds of Fire the other day. That band was my first exposure to what uber musicians can do with heavy music.

As always, Janszoon tells it like it is. Play anything enough times and it´s going to lose its freshness for you - unless you have the three-second memory of a goldfish.
For me, couple of albums that have retained their impact over many years, or that occasionally reveal an un-noticed detail, might be these:-

Frownland´s favourite: Troutmask
Fripp & Eno´s No Pussyfooting
Nick Drake´s Bryter Layter
Allman Brother´s Eat A Peach
Floyd´s Atom Heart Mother
Soft Machine´s Third
Van Morrison´s Astral Weeks

These win some kind of longevity prize because I´ve listened to them ever since their release. There are some other albums I regularly return to, Afro-Celtic Sound System´s Sound Magic for instance, but I´ve only been listening to that for twenty years - way too soon to decide how fresh it might remain!

You know what surprised me recently? How fresh some old New Jack Swing sounds nowadays. In some respects that's some of the most dated music ever. But the production approach is so different from what you hear nowadays in pop music that I actually feel a little surprised when, for instance, Boyz II Men have that little vocal breakdown in a song like Motownphilly.

Maybe I'm just getting old, though. Highly plausible.

Anyway, I should probably list some albums:

I agree about:
SMiLE by Brian Wilson (and the more recent Beach Boys release is worth checking out, as well.)
Astral Weeks, too. That's sort of the go-to album for a topic like this.
London Calling by the Clash

In the Aeroplane Over the Sea by Neutral Milk Hotel
Icky Thump by The White Stripes - there's one I wasn't so sure about when it came out, but that I really came around to over time.
Abbey Road by The Beatles. Pretty much the definition of a great rock album.

There're probably hundreds of records I could list with a straight face. So, naturally, I can't think of any other examples. D'oh!

The Microphones - The Glow Pt. 2

Listened to it over 50 times and still keeps getting better.

Boyz II Men are one of the great vocal bands of all time in my opinion. as someone mentioned in an earlier post, most/R&B funk music is uplifting and has a good vibe to it, so I could see why it would stay fresh through the years.

One song in particular I think it's still just as innovative today as it was in 1973, is the single Showdown, by the Electric Light Orchestra.

Can- Tago Mago/Ege Bamyasi/Future Days
Shellac- Terraform
Tool- Ænema
Grizzly Bear- Yellow House
Radiohead- Kid A
The Flaming Lips- The Soft Bulletin
John Coltrane- Blue Train
MF DOOM- Operation: Doomsday
Sigur Ros- ( )
Jesu- Silver EP
Wilco- Yankee Hotel Foxtrot
Tyler, the Creator- WOLF
Stereolab- Emperor Tomato Ketchup
Joy Division- Closer
Queens Of The Stone Age- Like Clockwork
Primus- Pork Soda
Autechtre- Cornfield/Amber
Tim Hecker- Virgins
Weezer- Blue Album
Gorillaz- Plastic Beach
Andrew Jackson Jihad- Knife Man
Opeth- Heritage
Alice In Chains- S/T
Scale The Summit- The Collective

Yes, Machine, I thought of mentioning Can or maybe Faust because that raw, unadorned quality retains its immediacy well. Didn´t put them on my list because I´m a very recent convert to their music, so it really is still fresh to me.

kriswright, I hear so many mentions of that Neutral Milk Hotel album that I might check it out. I wonder what I should expect from it ?