This month sees the reissuing of the Buzzcocks’ first three albums in comprehensive two-disc sets from Mute Records. Even though I’ve yet to hear the quality of their mastering, I’m going to call this good news on faith. All three albums are wonderful. The Buzzcocks legacy may be dwarfed by some of their peers like The Clash or The Sex Pistols, but their output is as good as anything in the 70′s British Punk canon.

Another Music in a Different Kitchen, their debut, is also their third best. This is only in light of the excellence of the subsequent albums and is not to say Another Music isn’t worthy of your time. Tracks like “Fast Cars” and “Autonomy” are among the band’s greatest. This is a brisk and consistent collection of quality punk songs.

Love Bites, my favorite Buzzcocks record, came out six months later. The band didn’t revolutionize their approach with this album, but they sure refined it. The music on Love Bites is fantastic and the lyrics are inspired, anti-love tirades. One of the catalysts for the punk rock movement was the need for an antidote to the glutenous, over-wrought popular music of the time. The way Love Bites subverts the cliched sentiments of conventional pop music is delightful and just a bit devilish.

The Buzzcocks third album (which would be followed by an extended hiatus and irregular appearances of forgettable albums) was A Different Kind of Tension, released a mere year and a half after their debut. A Different Kind of Tension, though a bit uneven, finds the Buzzcocks in an ambitious and exploratory mood. Tracks like “Paradise” and “I Don’t Know What To Do With My Life” wouldn’t be out of place on either of the previous albums, but others, like the deceptively sweet “You Say You Don’t Love Me” and the sprawling, album-highlight “I Believe,” push the boundaries of the band’s sound in exciting directions.

These two-disc sets retail at $16.97, which is a heck of a price. Anyone with the slightest interest in punk owes it to his or herself to look into these seminal albums.