Laura Nyro still gets inside my heart like no other woman performer. Even when her lyrics are just plain silly, even when her thin falsetto scrapes the back of your eardrums like an out-of-tune violin, there's something about her music that makes the imperfections endearing. You can grow up, and she still sounds as good. There's a depth to her singing, and a spirit in the way she deals with the old male-female mystery dance that a feminist fellow-traveller like myself can live with quite well. Laura Nyro learned more than a style from the '60s soul crooners whose music nurtured her; she copped an attitude. Like Smokey Robinson, like Marvin Gaye, she's not afraid to let go in love. A little weakness never hurt a strong soul.

Nested could've been any other woman writer's "I'm pregnant and oh so in love" bit of fluff. But Nyro...