Best album by an artist already in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame when it was recorded

Love and Theft?

Probably.

Blackstar too

That was my other thought for the "consensus" pick, but I like L&T better.

some other contenders (for me)

Rolling Stones - Bridges to Babylon
Van Morrison - Down the Road
Johnny Cash - American Songs
Steely Dan - Everything Must Go
Leonard Cohen - You Want It Darker

I'd stand up for World Gone Wrong or Heathen myself.

I wouldn't look askance if someone suggested:
The Healing Game, Van Morrison
Everything Must Go, Steely Dan

I don't think it's impossible for the next Radiohead album to be a contender. I wish I had as much confidence in Kate Bush.
Also, don't count out Charley Patton.

Riding With The King, just two dudes blueshammering away in a Cadillac convertible

Waiting for someone to make an argument for Lulu (Metallica entered the HOF in 2009, Reed in 1996, albeit as a member of the Velvet Underground).

Roy Orbison: Mystery Girl
ZZ Top: La futura

Nice!

Probably alone in this, but REM: Accelerate

possibly

r.e.m. - accelerate
nine inch nails - nine inch noize

*should* have been buddy guy but he wasn't inducted until three years after 'sweet tea'

Good thread idea.

With Van, the two I prefer would be “Choppin’ Wood” (unreleased and remade into “Down the Road”) and “Roll with the Punches”

Neil Young went in in 1995, so he must have made at least a couple that'd be in the running (as viewed by others, if not necessarily me); he seems like an obvious candidate.

Mirrorball, maybe.

Solomon Burke: Don't Give Up On Me

The Cure - Songs of a Lost World

Not mentioned yet:

Leonard Cohen - Live in London
Brian Wilson - SMiLE
Tom Waits - Bad as Me
Bruce Springsteen - Wrecking Ball
Elvis Costello - The Boy Named If
Prince - HITnRUN Phase Two
Lou Reed - Ecstasy
Paul McCartney - Run Devil Run
Robert Plant (with Alison Krauss) - Raise the Roof
Public Enemy - Black Sky Over the Projects: Apartment 2025
Neil Young - Prairie Wind
Paul Simon - So Beautiful or So What
Patti Smith - Banga
Dr. John - Locked Down
Lindsey Buckingham
The Allman Brothers Band - One Way Out
Van Morrison - Roll with the Punches
Randy Newman - Dark Matter
U2 - No Line on the Horizon
The Rolling Stones - A Bigger Bang
The Who - WHO

(Those last four need either several substitutions for their worst cuts or a bit of trimming.)

I went with the first time being inducted, hence Lou

plant was only inducted as part of zep so i don't think that counts

Simon and Garfunkel were 1990, so with Paul Simon solo you've got Rhythm of the Saints (released October '90) and You're The One. Leonard Cohen I'd go with Popular Problems.

paul simon solo was inducted in 2001

so no

George Clinton appears on the first Methods of Mayhem album.