My personal faves:
Joe Jackson -
Beat Crazy or
Night and Day -- I go back-and-forth over which of these is my favorite;
Beat Crazy is just a phenomenal way to spend forty minutes of your life, whereas
Night and Day is more idiosyncratic and fully executed. I can't imagine not owning either of these.
Talking Heads -
Little Creatures -- one of those albums that is SO GOOD you just know the band's going to break up inside five years.
Hedwig and the Angry Inch - Original Soundtrack -- Stephen Trask
may be the greatest songwriter currently walking the earth.
The Who -
Who's Next -- I know this has already shown up on a few lists, but... holy shit. Thoroughly amazing from top to bottom. "Baba O'reilly" may be the most perfect rock n' roll song ever recorded. If the members of The Who knew then what they know now (that they would NEVER be better than this), they would have completed a suicide pact in 1974, and avoided the Dinosaurs of Rock fate they've consigned themselves to.
They Might Be Giants -
John Henry -- Their first album with a beginning, a middle and an end. Also, possibly the first time the Johns really started to grasp what their fans had already been telling them for over half a decade (this was 1994): they are something special, and the wonderful music they make IS being heard.