Patti Smith [ tickets ]'s landmark 1975 debut melded punk rock and poetry like no other album to come before or, really, since. The work was so achingly raw and hypnotically rhythmic that its punch hasn't lessened one iota over the decades.

In fact, if anything, "Horses" has grown more powerfully persuasive with age.

That's the lesson to be learned with the newly released "Horses/Horses," a two-disc set that marks the 30th anniversary of what surely is one of the most impressive and influential debut recordings in rock history.

The other lesson to learn is that the album has never sounded better than it does on the first disc of this set. That's really saying something, given how well John Cale did in producing the original record. Yet, Greg Calbi pulls off the seemingly impossible with a remastering job that somehow makes this diamond shine even brighter.

Besides featuring the original album in its entirety, the first half of "Horses/Horses" also includes a stellar interpretation of The Who's classic "My Generation," which was originally released as the B-side to the album's signature track, "Gloria."

Disc two, however, is where things get almost unbearably good. As great as Smith has been on occasion in the studio, she's always been even better on the stage. That point is made perfectly clear on the second half of "Horses/Horses." The disc showcases Smith and her band--guitarist Lenny Kaye, drummer Jay Dee Daugherty, bassist Tony Shanahan and Television-guitarist Tom Verlaine--in a blistering live performance of "Horses" at the Royal Festival Hall in London earlier this year.

In all, "Horses/Horses" ranks as one of the best special edition reissues in memory.