Problem I always had with Pearl Jam's Ten was that it sounded like it was recorded from inside a dustbin outback of the stadium on the matinee performance at the end of long tour.
On an old tape player.
By a half deaf kid who had just been to a Metallic concert, spending 2 hours 'banging in the mosh pit next to the speakers.
Music or performance wasn't the issue, it was the audio.
Some good taste in this thread. Hard to pick a best but definitely agree with Dark side of the moon, Bleach and the Middle East I would also add Neil Young - On the Beach, Kings of Leon - Youth and young manhood
Single album that really blew my mind is Siamese dream by smashing pumpkins
It was there through some real high highs and low lows heaps of significant defining life moments around that time for me so it really was the background of five of the best and worst years of my life..........
And pink Floyd wish you were here...... let's just say leaving school at 14 to work on a commercial fishing boat was a bit of an eye opener