Kevin Bronson on June 10th, 2015

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The most heartbreaking thing about Sara Lov’s vocals is … well, that we haven’t heard it since her 2011 album of cover songs, “I Already Love You.” Lov, once half of the dreamy duo Devics with pianist Dustin O’Halloran, has long held listeners rapt with her voice, a precise, emotive instrument that has sent scribes consulting the thesaurus for words like “honeyed,” “haunting,” “angelic,” “smokey” and, well, you get the idea. Thanks to some fan-funding, though, the singer-songwriter has a new album on the way, her first of original material since 2009’s splendid “Seasoned Eyes Were Beaming.” It’s titled “Some Kind of Champion,” is due Aug. 25 and was made with producer/savant Zac Rae (Death Cab For Cutie, My Brightest Diamond, Fiona Apple, et al). Boasting collaborations with the likes of O’Halloran, Rae, Hauschka, Scott Leahy and Jonathan Price, the new album is typically lush and meditative, waltzing between the folk and pop worlds with lyrical aplomb and even, on the title track, recalling another of L.A. finest sirens, Jenny Lewis. A very happy return.

||| Stream: “Some Kind of Champion” and “Sunmore”