If you put on an album that you love and it takes you back to the way you felt the first time you heard it then it's classic. If the feeling you had with that album can survive the changes that people go through as they live, then it is truly special.

classic seems to be thrown around as much as the words 'legend' and 'diva.'

word.

i agree about the word classic being thrown around.
i just think it's a laziness in vocabulary personally. people feel like saying 'i really dig that album' isn't enough, and their opinion is validated by saying that it's classic. strange explanation, i know.
journalist play a lot of blame in that (me included, although i try not to say that). so many reviews contain the word classic.

for me, it's an album i can listen to straight through for the next umteenth years. or an album that gets passed down through generations and still holds that same essence in tact and ingredients that made it 'classic'

I've oftened wondered what criteria causes a person to label an album classic. I'm still trying to figure out ALL of my determinants, but one criteria is the timeless factor.

Can I listen to the same album 5, 10, 20+ years from now and still get that feeling?

I'm asking because it seems the 'classic' entitlement is thrown around quite freely these days.