Kevin Bronson on July 15th, 2013

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Jake Bellows possesses the evocative voice of a man who’s seen a lot, or at least felt a lot, and his early music as part of the Omaha band Neva Dinova juxtaposed that vocal intimacy with expansive guitar textures. Relocated to Los Angeles from the Midwest in 2010, Bellows has slowly been fleshing out the songs he demoed in Omaha before his move. The fruits of his labors, “New Ocean,” will be out Aug. 6 on Saddle Creek Records, the label that released Neva Dinova’s 2008, reissued the band’s splendid self-titled debut and put out Bellows’ collaboration with Conor Oberst, “One Jug of Wine, Two Vessels.” On the new album, made with the help of Heath Koontz (Neva Dinova), Todd Fink (the Faint) and Morgan Nagler (Whispertown), Bellows’ woozy voice waxes, wanes, woos and philosophizes, revealing the work of a songwriter who knows the best music is not a one-way conversation.

||| Stream: “I Know You” and “All Right Now”

||| Previously: “Two Weeks” (demo version), “She’s Feeling Low”