a dreamer whose reveries are, by turns, broodingly bittersweet and cautiously optimistic. If on Pelican West he seemed a giggly, clubby preppie with a touch of the brat in him, he comes off on North of a Miracle as something of a loner much given to staring pensively at sunsets or out to sea.

Though each song is touched in some measure by a visceral yearning for an unattainable closeness, Heyward's songs encompass a broad range of moods and tempos. "Take That Situation," "Atlantic Monday" and "The Kick of Love" are all upbeat, toe-tapping numbers with punchy brass arrangements and a jazzy, Latinate bounce. "Blue Hat for a Blue Day," "Whistle Down the Wind" and "The Day It Rained Forever" are slower, lush with orchestral embellishments and dense with brush strokes of moody blue. But I've saved the best for last: "Two Make It True" is an agreeable midtempo chugger with a sinewy gem of a hook ("Never giving you up/Always putting you down") that gains momentum with repetition; try not dancing to it. And "On a Sunday," a song about solitary walks "on a gray Sunday," is an utterly companionable song that'll take the gray out of the rainiest day and make solitude a cause for celebration. As will the entire album, when you get right down to it. (RS 416)

PARKE PUTERBAUGH