@whatthefluther – unfortunately for me, Paranoid came out the year I was born, so I had no such experience, though my first exposure to Sabbath (other than on the radio) came via their We Sold Our Soul for Rock and Roll greatest hits album…and I remember thinking that even though I don’t usually care for greatest hits album, this one was more powerful than almost any regular album I could think of. But yes, their first two albums were absolutely perfect masterpieces. The one album I remember waiting for with great anticipation and being absolutely blown away by was Pantera’s 3rd album, Far Beyond Driven…only time in my life I went to a midnight album sale…listened to it 3 times that night. It’s always such a thrill when something you’ve been looking forward to is better than you could ever have imagined, probably because it so rarely happens.
and @AstroChuck – They Might Be Giants did have a self titled album as well, but the self titled song wasn’t on it.