Not since her I Don’t Want to Let You Down EP of June 2015 has Sharon Van Etten gone it alone, meaning that in the interim, fans, aficionados, etc. of the New Jersey genius have had to make do with mere cameos – a cover, in cahoots with Perfume Genius, of the Grateful Dead’s To Lay Me Down here, or a Hercules & Love Affair collaboration there. (She’s also scored Katherine Dieckmann’s Strange Weather, and composed bits and pieces for similarly wreath-worthy productions, so it’s not as though her thumbs have been idling by any stretch; nonetheless, the long-overdue follow-up to Are We There really wouldn’t go amiss right about now.) Now, though, we’ll have to make do with Best I Can, for which Van Etten provides typically plaintive vocals atop Michael Cera’s reinterpretation of Yazoo’s irreproachable Only You. And as she forbearingly pledges, “I will always do the best I can for you,” we’ve a firm reminder of her abiding, effortless (if arguably rather neglected) brilliance.

Sharon Van Etten.