CD OF THE WEEK:Complete – Collector's Edition Rhino*****

September spawns a monster reissue of every single last note recorded by The Smiths, and if you think you’ve been here before, apparently most everything previously released under The Smiths “reissue” tag has been “bloody awful” and should be boycotted (according to Morrissey). Johnny Marr was none too pleased either.

Marr has been heavily involved in Complete, which is all four studio albums, the live album Rank, and three collections ( Hatful of Hollow, The World Won't Listen, Louder Than Bombs). Also included in the sumptuous package are DVDs, art prints, artwork posters, codes for high-quality MP3 downloads, booklets, new liner notes by Marr, and lots of other stuff that need not detain us here.

Marr was determined to get this definitive package just right, so he went back to the original tape sources and locked himself into London’s Metropolis Studios to complete the job.

“I wanted to get them sounding right and remove any processing,” he said, “so that they now sound as they did when they were originally made. We’ve never sounded better.”

Everything is here because, famously, The Smiths released every single thing they ever recorded – unlike other bands who suddenly find “lost” albums when they have a reunion tour coming up.

People forget that the band's recording career only lasted three years, from their eponymous debut (1984) to Strangeways, Here We Come(1987). When you consider the musical progression (without sacrificing hit singles) made in that time, their much-picked- over legacy becomes even more burnished.

The debut is perfect jingle- jangle pop, the three-minute immediacy of the work reflecting their love of the Tamla Motown sound. By the time of Meat Is Murderand The Queen Is Deadthey had already moved on to the opus song, How Soon Is Now, et al.

All four members of The Smiths cite Strangewaysas their best album. With comparatively few guitars on it (Marr was sick of being labelled a jingly-jangly supremo) it's their White Album, and shows the direction they would have taken if it all hadn't come crashing down around their ears.

It’s a rare thing that a band’s whole back catalogue (and there was never any filler with The Smiths) can still stand up and walk tall some 25 years later, but this is proof positive that The Smiths were as gifted as they were querulous, as influential as they were truculent, as thrillingly brilliant today as they were when they first sullenly sloped their way around the Arndale Centre. See johnny-marr.com (there is no official Smiths site)

Download tracks: What Difference Does It Make?, Reel Around the Fountain, Meat Is Murder, The Queen Is Dead, Last Night I Dreamt Somebody Loved Me