Who’s a twenty-something?? I wish I was still a youngster.
Good comments though Gary.
Yes McGoldrick is a great composer but Meitheemh on Lunasa’s first album just puts him up there with some of the best players. Yes listen to UPs I love them but can’t afford to start playing.
Assuming that you’re interested in playing Irish flute/whistle music, there are quite a bunch of compilations out there for you to consider if you want a general listen but don’t feel like commiting to a full CD of a specific flute player. Apart from the WFOs there is “The Mountain Road” compilation, the “Flute Players of Roscommon” compilation and “The North Wind” compilation. Granted most of these are more geared towards Sligo/Northern flute playing.
There is a particular compilation by Ossian, of whistle players called “Totally Traditional Tinwhistles” I would highly recommend. Its got samplings of whistlers like Josie McDermott, Willie Clancy, Micho Russell, Fintan Vallely among others. Then there is the Mary Bergin recordings that most whistlers would have. Tommy McCarthy’s “Sporting Nell” is good Clare whistling, with some concertina and piping tracks in it as well.
Some of my personal favourites for commercially recorded flute players are:
Catherine McEvoy - Traditional Flute Music in the Sligo Roscommon Style
Kevin Henry - One’s Own Place
Sean Moloney - Potsticks
Frankie Gavin - Up and Away
Eamonn Cotter - Tradition Irish Music from County Clare
Desi Wilkinson - The Three Piece Flute
Josie McDermott - Darbey’s Farewell to London
I don’t like Molloy but he’s standard listening for most flute players so you should be exposed to him anyway. His self titled debut solo album aka “Black Album” would be what I would recommend. All of the above are solo flute or flute with little accompaniment, and what I would recommend for the learning flute player.
Duets with flute in them:
Paddy Canny, PJ Hayes, Peadar O’Loughlin, Bridie Lafferty - An Historic Recording of Irish Traditional Music from County Clare and East Galway (essential listening in my books, probably my favourite commercial release despite only being 33 minutes long)
PJ Crotty & James Cullinan - Happy to Meet
Catherine & John McEvoy - The Kilmore Fancy
Maeve Donnelly & Peadar O’Loughlin - The Thing Itself
Jack & Charlie Coen - The Branch Line
A relatively large proportion of good material is not commercially available, you would have to trade amongst fellow musicians and forum members for them. These include out of print recordings like John McKenna’s legendary recordings, Peter Horan & Fred Finn’s, etc (these are usually a bit more “hardcore”). Other not commercially available music includes tapes from music workshops and sessions, some of these can be good and palatable too. Of course there are also a very good bunch of free mp3s online, the flute geezer recordings being one of them:
http://www.lafferty.ca/music/irish/flute-geezers/
More free trad:
http://chiffboard.mati.ca/viewtopic.php?t=16618&highlight=samples
Again don’t limit yourself to just flute playing. There’s a whole bunch of good commercial releases that you could benefit from listening to eg. Kevin Crehan’s solo CD, Mick O’Brien & Caoimhin O’Raghallaigh’s Kitty Lie Over (has a few whistle tracks too)
Actually, the Horan/Finn album is still available on cassette from the CCE.
Word on the grapevine is that it may be released on CD soon…
That’d be yer man MurphyStout who kicked off the “listen to pre-Molloy” track in this thread 
What track number is that?
I’ve never understood why sets of dance tunes need addtional names.
I think it all depends on the types of music you like to play, and your goals as a player. That being said, my favorites are Cherish the Ladies, Fairport Convention and Gaelic Storm. There are a thousand lessons to be learned about phrasing just by paying close attention to Swarb’s fiddling and Joanie’s whistling.
(Keep in mind that my own playing is decidedly non-trad.) 
That’s the best advice I’ve seen yet.