Queens of the Stone Age had a run of albums where they were in a league of their own – self-titled, rated-R and songs for the deaf. Listen to them all the time still. Subsequent stuff hasn’t been at that level, but that’s only to be expected really.
In the Aeroplane over the sea from NMH still gets heavy play (helped by the fact my 4yo loves the ‘carrot-flowers CD’). The lyrics are quite oblique, but it still has the feeling of a complete hang-your-balls-out artistic statement, like a f_k was not given if it sold 1 copy or 1 million.
Not that this means anything itself, but when you see a guy lay it all out like that, and the music is still a complete triumph, then that’s a special combination.