“AN INVITATION” INARA GEORGE AND VAN DYKE PARKS (EVERLOVING)

She’s not a Dylan or a Lennon, but Inara George has a familial shadow hanging over her.

Still, her father, Little Feat frontman Lowell George, was to thank for the introduction of her most recent recording partner, Van Dyke Parks.

Parks was a friend of the elder George back when Little Feat could still be considered psychedelic country rock. Parks, in fact, was in Baltimore visiting the Georges the day Inara was born.

When Inara George approached Parks about arranging her next solo record, she was ready for a change from the heavily processed, vocal dominant work of her indie pop duo, the Bird and the Bee. With stints as the lyricist for the Beach Boys’ “SMiLE” as well as production and arrangement work for bands from U2 to Toad the Wet Sprocket and for solo artists like Rufus Wainwright and Fiona Apple, Parks’ quirky point of view fit the bill. Plus, there was the family connection.

The resulting collaboration, “An Invitation,” is one of the most singular pieces of music you are likely to hear this year.

The album combines elements the old school Hollywood musical, French accordion, indie pop and oddly, quintessential American composer Aaron Copeland. George’s vocals are similarly off-kilter, delivered with a breathy languor of a less talented singer. Listen a few times and you’ll likely be struck by self-conscious flights of musical fancy where modern lyrics pair with almost classical arrangements. The songs are playful and yet often mournful, abrupt and yet quite pretty.

Given the disparate elements, it’s not surprising that the finished product sounds something like a heady Off Broadway musical that’s audacious in conception, but has nothing worth singing along to.

There’s something to be admired about that kind of recklessness. When the collaboration is good, as it is on tunes like “Bomb” and “Idaho,” they create a space for the mind to explore, one full of texture and dimension. But it’s one thing to challenge to the listener, and another to not have a payoff.

For all the downsides, Parks’ arrangements are uniformly spectacular: sweeping and lush and odd-ball funny. Unfortunately, George’s contribution didn’t hit the same bar, leaving you aching for melody, dying for unifying themes and praying that at some point the chorus will come along.

A little conventional songwriting would have served George and the album better. But “An Invitation” is worth listening if only to imagine the possibilities for a disc that no one really expected.

E-mail Jonathan Foerster at jfoerster@naplesnews.com