Meyers has a fine voice, now tomboyish, now nicely feminine, as in 2008′s “Up to You”–the feminine, I mean–which is an effective love song.  I haven’t heard her first, self-titled album but one of its tracks, ‘The Way to Begin,” is melodically interesting, snappy, winning.

Spiritually-themed rock seldom gets much better than these five songs.  Go ahead and purchase Dying for a Heart.  Or, if not, I sincerely believe Meyers has a place on your iPod.

For the first time I saw the old Fred Astaire-Ginger Rogers movie, Shall We Dance, and was surprised at how many good Gershwin tunes it contains, including ‘They Can’t Take That Away From Me” and “Beginner’s Luck.”  The problem is that they’re over too quickly.  Not enough time is provided for them.  We always have to get back to the hokey story.

The style is folk-pop, if I may call it that, and it is good to hear both Linda and Richard singing lead as well as backup (before they parted ways).  Lyrically the songs on Bright Lights are often strong; musically they are always strong.  Sure, “The Little Beggar Girl” seems negligible to me, but the two cuts that follow it and conclude the album–“The End of the Rainbow” and “The Great Valerio”–are stark, penetrating jewels.  Penetrating, in a way, is what the entire recording is.

Herein, suffering in no way signifies the nonexistence of God.  Even so, ours is a world whose entertainment of one kind or another–listen to the title song–will not save it, will not revitalize the individual dreams that have “withered and died.”

1974′s “Pinky” is a track on Elton John’s Caribou album, and what a subtle, un-mawkish appeal its melody has!  It’s a serene song with a captivating if not exactly perfect lyric by Bernie Taupin.  Who else would present a man who describes his lover as “the trial and the error of my master plan”?  And then there’s the John song “Harmony” (1973) in which Elton plays an English street tough before getting vulnerable in the chorus.  It almost fails to cohere, but John and his band manage to hammer the song into shape–and, really, it ain’t great but it’s quite moving.

As happy as “Pinky,” “When Did You Fall in Love With Me?” (2005) is a secular ballad by the Christian artist Chris Rice.  An airy synthesizer chord leads to a smooth drum and piano as well as an assertive bass; and, to be sure, it leads to lovely music.  The words are just fair but the music redeems them.  Rice offers some nice, no-sweat singing.

For over 8 minutes, The Who give no musical quarter in 1971′s “Won’t Get Fooled Again.” Though there’s a solemn synthesizer, it’s overpowered by a hard-nosed guitar and Roger Daltrey’s great voice.  It is not as deeply tuneful a song as, say, “Behind Blue Eyes,” but it has its hooks.  The words in this counterculture item I have my doubts about, albeit I like that stuff about revolution leaders “sit[ting] in judgment of all wrong” after “the morals that they worship” have disappeared.  Nice touch.

Yes, in “Green-Eyed Lady” by Sugarloaf, the lyrics are moonbeam-y, but there aren’t very many of them.  In large measure the song is an instrumental.  The music in its intro builds to a two-note crash of the wave, then some quicksilver drumming, and soon some likable singing comes on.  ”Lady”‘s structure is good and the keyboards get to be a showstopper.  A commercial and artistic hit.

“Roundabout” (1972) is the most famous song by the prog rock band Yes.  A pretty decent rock number, it churns along after starting with a sustained note and Spanish-flavored guitar picking.  We hear the same guitar in the middle of the song when everything slows down and a pleasant synthesizer is added.  There’s plenty of organ music too, which frankly keeps “Roundabout” from becoming rinky-dink with its pop thinness.  Once again, though, I have to complain about the lyrics, for how could I not complain about Yes’s lyrics? . . . Gee, I guess I’ll have to turn to Simon and Garfunkel’s “Bridge Over Troubled Water” (1970) for words that are okay–and for beautiful music.  It only runs 4 minutes and 55 seconds but it seems longer, which is satisfactory since it is impeccably put together.  The duo’s best song.