Poet & author Jim Carroll (The Basketball Diaries) ventured into music in the 1980's, choosing punk as his medium. He cut three albums (plus some spoken word recordings), but only the first, a blistering, Charles Bukowski-influenced pastiche of depravity and longing called Catholic Boy, is a classic. It's still one of my favorite records of the era, featuring Carroll's half-sung, half-spewed lyrics backed by great band in the raunchy, New York tradition. Songs like "Wicked Gravity" and "People Who Died" stick with you despite their lack of overt melody. Carroll was no musician, but he understood the music.

The follow-ups Dry Dreams and (especially) I Write Your Name are good; this makes Rhino's World Without Gravity: The Best Of Jim Carroll a defensible purchase. However, Carroll's scorching debut, Catholic Boy, is his best record by such a large margin that I would recommend buying it instead of or in addition to The Best Of.