The heroines who populate Mary-Chapin Carpenter's songs in Shooting Straight in the Dark, are a restless breed. They think too much for their own good, push to know why a relationship isn't working, and try to shake out their frustrations on the dance floor. But most take matters into their own hands, including the long-neglected wife in ''When She's Gone,'' who walks out after years of catering to a man who won't even miss her. Carpenter also offers a wonderfully evocative song about a comet sighting, ''Halley Came to Jackson,'' and the rip-roaring ''Down at the Twist and Shout,'' a kind of country-does-Cajun number. One small reservation: This third album isn't as immediately grabby as last year's State of the Heart, which had more up-tempo songs to balance the melancholia. A-
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