ae is not the best effort, trust me dude.
infinity and physicist are his best solo albums. the former has some of the most complex, beautiful layering i have ever heard in music while the latter just has a magical feel to it. listening to infinity, especially songs like noisy pink bubbles, while blazed, makes me see COLORS. it's the coolest, craziest feeling in the world. listening to physicist all the way through in one sitting is one hell of a ride as well.
of course ocean machine is almost a perfect album, and terria as well...
ae has more of a 'band' feel to it, while the other albums are only devin's creation save the main drum riff for kingdom off physicst which was written by gene.
But, to START with...id actually go for infinity. the songs are completely varied from one another...
ocean machine would be my next recommendation. make sure you get them all though. i bought om, infinity and physicist all at once and listened to nothing else for two years of my life.
the primary thing to remember with these albums is that they take a long (well, sometimes long) time to get into...you need many progressive listens. but when it clicks, it REALLY clicks.