20 albums that only get better with age

The Beastie Boys’ first album, “License to Ill,” still had some of the trio’s old punk band feel to it, not to mention a heavy dose of sophomoric humor they would come to regret. “Paul’s Boutique” felt like a whole new thing, and it quickly became a classic — that is, at least once people could wrap their heads around the density. In some ways, “Paul’s Boutique” brought sampling to the mainstream, and those samples still pop today.

“Pet Sounds” was weird. The Beach Boys went from being a band singing about girls and surfing, like so many male vocal groups, but Brian Wilson had something bigger on his mind. Now “Pet Sounds” is recognized as the brilliant work of a troubled, singular genius. Even the Beatles were inspired by it!

You often hear about cult movies, but rarer is the cult album. However, Neutral Milk Hotel’s “In the Aeroplane Over the Sea” definitely qualifies. It’s a great album, but few releases have the fervent following Jeff Mangum’s magnum opus has. Neutral Milk Hotel went from an unknown band to cult icons seemingly overnight.

When legendary music critic Robert Christgau reviewed De La Soul’s debut album, he called it “unlike any rap album you or anybody else has ever heard.” Even today that sort of feels true. The album, produced by Prince Paul, is infectious and still feels fresh with every new listen. It’s hard to get bored of “3 Feet High and Rising.”

The Fab Four had already shown they were heading in a different direction with previous albums like “Sgt. Pepper’s,” which came out the year prior. This self-titled offering, popularly called “The White Album,” was a further step in a new creative direction. The double album caused a lot of tension between the band — John Lennon’s preoccupation with his new lady, Yoko Ono, didn’t help — but what the Beatles turned out was a work of brilliance that many consider their best album, which is saying something.

Pavement’s two first albums are fantastic, but they are pretty standard, if great, indie rock. “Wowee Zowee” felt a bit different, which made it puzzling at first. It almost needs more than one listen. If you give it that, though, and you start grabbing onto the rhythms and peculiarities of Pavement’s bonkers offering, it starts to grow on you. “Wowee Zowee” is as good as any other Pavement album. It just sounds different.

Many people consider “Kid A” to be Radiohead’s best album. Some, including Pitchfork, have named it the top album of the 2000s. It proved a bit more divisive at the time. Radiohead had completely abandoned its rock band days, heading in a direction that would lead the band to a different sound from the days of “Creep” and “Paranoid Android.” “Kid A” is where Radiohead’s two sensibilities met, and it turned out amazing.

In addition to its iconic album cover, “London Calling” has a lot going for it. It’s dense, featuring a lot of different styles over its double-album length. “London Calling” is also decidedly political, which frankly helps it age better. The Clash’s energy and anger still resonate, making it a repeat listen for 40 years at this point.

Here’s an album that was accepted positively at the time but has grown in stature even more. R.E.M.’s fantastic release is a little more somber than previous albums, but the sound of “Automatic for the People” still resonates. Songs like “Everybody Hurts” and “Nightswimming” never get old, and neither does this album.

Talking Heads were a little ahead of their time in some respects, even if music critics loved “Remain in Light” when it came out. Inspired by the sounds of Fela Kuti and African rhythms, but in a way that felt less grating than when Paul Simon did it with “Graceland,” “Remain in Light” was a new kind of sound for some listeners. As time has gone on, though, “Remain in Light” has proved quite influential, and it’s fun to go back to listen to where things started, in a matter of speaking.

Sure, it’s OutKast’s next release: the split double album “Speakerboxxx/The Love Below” that had “Hey Ya.” However, if we’re being honest, do you need to hear “Hey Ya” for the millionth time? And that album is a bit unwieldly. “Stankonia,” on the other hand, is still great, and it features a few hits and works better as a whole. Plus, if you ever need to hear “Hey Ya” again, you know where to find it.

Husker Du started off as a hardcore punk band that played as fast and hard as possible. As time went on, though, it started to slow down and get more melodic. The culmination of that came on “New Day Rising,” the trio’s best album and the one that has aged the best. If you love punk, you probably listened to this one on repeat before.

Remember the first time you heard “Fell in Love with a Girl?” It just absolutely ripped, and it still does. There’s so much more to the album that broke the White Stripes though, which packed 16 songs into 40 minutes. Jack’s guitar work and Meg’s drumming course through the album with so much energy that it feels like it’s over as soon as it starts...which means it’s time to listen to it all over again!

Modest Mouse had been around for a few years when it surprisingly hit it big with the catchy single “Float On.” After that the band started to change members and switch up its sound, to marginal results. Let’s go back to the album before “Float On,” the impeccable “The Moon and Antarctica.” While “Float On” and its ilk have not aged as well, this album certainly has.

Wolf Parade has made a few albums since “Apologies to the Queen Mary.” They are mostly fine but can’t live up to the power of the band's debut album. Meanwhile, “Apologies to the Queen Mary” just keeps getting better. It captured the band's sound perfectly out of the gate and has never been able to live up to the lofty standards since.

Madvillain don’t make anything easy for you. MF DOOM was a rapper who wore a mask and had the persona of a supervillain. The producer Madlib has his own alter ego, an alien named Quasimoto. “Madvillainy” is incredibly dense, but that’s why it has aged so well. It feels like you’re unlocking something new every time you listen to it.

There’s a reason why the Ramones are still considered perhaps the quintessential punk band. They basically made the genre possible, and their debut album is still a perfect example of punk. The music may seem simple, but it’s still immensely catchy, and people wouldn’t still be bumping “Blitzkrieg Bop” if it wasn’t worth giving repeat listens to.

“Random Access Memories” is the Daft Punk album most people remember. However, when we say the “album” people remember, we’re really talking about “Get Lucky.” If people who were turned onto the robot duo by that hit song wanted to dive into the back catalog, hopefully they tried out “Discovery.” It’s generally considered the duo’s best album, and it’s one worth listening to over and over.

So many bands that came up in the garage rock revival era of the turn of the millennium fell by the wayside. In truth, so did the Strokes. Before that, though, they gave us “Is This It.” A lot of the music that got buzz in the early days of music blogging doesn’t hold up, but “Is This It” is still a classic.

Alex Chilton inspired a ton of musicians who came in his wake, most notably the Replacements. Alas, he didn’t find a ton of success during his heyday. Eventually, though, people went back and found his music, and suddenly Chilton and his band, Big Star, were getting their due. The album title “#1 Record,” was bold and proved inaccurate, but time has been extremely kind to the band, giving it the attention it wanted so many years ago.