Today, Soundcheck officially launches The Morrissey Book Club, a three-week journey into the recently-released autobiography of The Smiths frontman and dour spirit animal. (You can join us as we all read the book together in three medium-sized chunks.)

And to kick things off, take a deep dive into the band's self-titled debut record, which just so happens to have been released exactly 30 years ago, on Feb. 20, 1984. A critically acclaimed, yet sullen album, The Smiths debuted at No. 2 on the U.K. charts, yielded the single, "What Difference Does It Make?" and paved the way for the band's 1985 release, Meat Is Murder.

To help, music writer Tony Fletcher guides us through the music and myth of The Smiths, the influential English band and The Smiths, the album, which is just one topic covered in his exhaustive Smiths biography, A Light That Never Goes Out: The Enduring Saga of the Smiths.