Alison Krauss could do covers of Insane Clown Posse songs and make them sound sweet. Fortunately, the traditional bluegrass songstress saves her celestial voice for a lighter buffet of borrowed songs on her latest album, New Favorite. The first record for Krauss and her longtime backing band Union Station since 1997’s So Long, So Wrong, New Favorite treads familiar ground, seldom veering from the friendly, studio-polished bluegrass that filled earlier albums. However, the saccharine sweetness of some of Krauss’ previous work is gone. Again, no death metal here, but there is a control and a depth to Krauss’ voice and song selection that before this record only showed itself in flashes. Hear it on “The Lucky One,” a tender song about a man who, come rain or shine, sets his face at a smile. Or on the opening track, “Let Me Touch You for Awhile,” a love song, featuring Krauss’ pleading alto, that might have come out mawkish by a less experienced singer.

New Favorite also includes two gems (“The Boy Who Wouldn’t Hoe Corn” and “Momma Cried”) by Don Tyminski, Union Station’s veteran guitar player. Last year, Tyminski released a well-received solo album and, with Krauss, contributed to the platinum selling O Brother, Where Art Thou? soundtrack. The group’s banjo slinger Ron Block turns in another bright moment, crooning the rough-and-tumble “It All Comes Down to You.” But it’s Krauss who shines at the album’s end on the title track—a woeful Gillian Welch-penned paean to fading love.

Alison Krauss and Union Station have been one of the most consistent acts in bluegrass in their 15 years of making music for one reason: because they keep releasing damn good records like this one.