Always up the task, Will Calcutt answers my question about truly great albums of somewhat recent history with swift precision:

As for LPs, Neutral Milk Hotel's "In the Aeroplane Over the Sea" may be one of the most emotionally intense records ever recorded, and it is haunting in a peculiar way, as if Jeff Mangum was possessed by some psychedelic baptist snakehandling ghost when it was recorded. Much like Shields, Mangum hasn't really been able to make anything since making this record. Truly amazing. Plaslaiko always wants to listen to this record. And everyone should feel that way.

Will adds: In 2029, bands better sound like Brainiac or the post apocalypse won't be worth sticking around for.
So true.

And for those irked by our mangling of the beautiful French language, Les Infants Terribles is spelled with an I instead of an E because the initials are L.I.T. Totally dorky, but that's the explanation.