The Smiths: The Queen is Dead
Pulp: His & Hers
My Bloody Valentine: Loveless
Pixies: Surfer Rosa
Violent Femmes: Violent Femmes

Tough call. I could go on for days!!

I just listened to two of those albums earlier. Loveless and The Queen Is Dead. I think The latter may be The Smiths' best album, but it's hard to choose.

Five more:

Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain by Pavement
Tim by The Replacements
Zen Arcade by Husker Du
Closer by Joy Division
Disintegration by The Cure

good list, though i don't think highly of Pulp

Pixies-Doolittle (proto-indie if you will)
MBV-Loveless
NMH-In the Aeroplane Over the Sea
Pavement-Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain
Spiritualized-Ladies And Gentlemen We Are Floating In Space

I might be biased towards a certain decade.

This is amazing, thankyou so much everyone. I only have 2 years of exposure to music as a whole, so this has legitimately helped me.

I don't know if I should feel ashamed that I haven't even heard of 2/3 of these 'obvious' albums.

you should get right to it then, kind sir

Joy Division - Substance
My Bloody Valentine - Isn't Anything
Of Montreal - Hissing Fauna, are you the destroyer?
Alcest - Souvenirs D'un Autre Monde
The Smiths - The Queen is Dead

the smiths-the queen is dead
the strokes-is this it
arcade fire-funeral
the pixies-doolittle
radiohead-ok computer

predictable i know.

A cursory glance at this thread would suggest The Queen is Dead is top of the pile.
Yes/No?

Substance, as a compilation may be problematic as an entry, I'd have thought.