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An Invitation | 
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| Artists: Inara George, Van Dyke Parks
Label: Everloving
Category: Music
List Price: $17.98
Buy New: $9.99
You Save: $7.99 (44%)
New (31) Used (11) from $8.00
Rating:  5 reviews
Sales Rank: 38788
Media: Audio CD
Discs: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 5.4 x 4.9 x 0.4
MPN: 24
UPC: 181220100128
EAN: 0181220100128
ASIN: B001B0H7CM
Release Date: August 12, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: Expedited shipping available
Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: Brand new, factory sealed. Fast shipping!
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| Tracks:
| • | Overture | | • | Right as Wrong | | • | Accidental | | • | Bomb | | • | Duet | | • | Dirty White | | • | Idaho | | • | Rough Design | | • | Tell Me That You Love Me | | • | Don't Let It Get You | | • | Oh My Love | | • | Family Tree | | • | Night Happens |
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| Editorial Reviews:
Album Description
An Invitation is an intimate collaboration between Inara and legendary arranger Van Dyke Parks. The result is a lush, elegant, fully orchestrated song cycle, a catalog of experiences equally inspired by the sophistication of Frank Sinatra and the storied, cinematic wonder of Richard Sherman's oeuvre. Throughout the record, Van Dyke's cerebral (psychedelic, even) arrangements twist the music into multiple directions at once, a swirling canvas suspended over the sonic mantelpiece of Inara's songs, bewitching and perplexing, a truly organic achievement among friends in an era of artificial pleasures.
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| Customer Reviews:
Although we are far, we are closer than most October 25, 2008
Imagine -- what if Regina Spektor were to conquer an orchestra, and recorded an album while keeping them in her thrall?
That about describes the sound of Inara George's second full-length solo album (no bird and the bee, no Living Sisters, nobody!), a quirkily orchestral collaboration with Van Dyke Parks. George's vivid songwriting and huskily pretty voice would be enough to make this a solid effort on their own, but the lovely backdrop of twitching swirling strings and faint accordion take the songs to a whole new level.
It opens with a trumpeting overture and nimble strings, and you can almost imagine a line of heralds welcoming George into a fully furnished little album. And then: "Wanna find the bottom of my heart/wanna be alone until I'm lonely," George sings plaintively, sounding weary and careworn. As the violins spin themselves around her, she tells us what she wants to do: "I want to have regrets/because I want to do absolutely all i can... open the door and find/a destination, a revelation/I'll see a ghost/he'll steal my voice and I'll begin again..."
The next two songs are both sprightlier and darker -- "Accidental" is a barbed little song with a lively melody ("when you speak to me/I speak too pleasantly/where's the knife? where's the fire?") and "Bomb" is a darker version of the same, with a more bittersweet tone. George slips through a wall of swaying strings and gentle accordion, sounding like she's singing a number in a musical set in Parisian springtime.
And after that, George dabbles in other pop songs filled with orchestral grandeur: a languid sunlit ballad ("I can break my heart before we start..."), angular melodies that meander through a maze of strings, wistful feather-light songs about someone who went to Idaho, dark ballads half-overwhelmed by urgent cascading violins, mellow pop tunes, and even mellower little love songs pillowed in nimble string sections ("Do you know your family tree?...
I could be your century/I wanna settle down/I could be your baby tree...").
Inara George's previous album "All Rise" had a folk-rockier sound -- when she wasn't murmuring through soft guitar ballads, she tried her hand at rock'n'roll and a little electronic-tinged pop. She's obviously gone through a lot of musical evolution since then, because "An Invitation" has little in common with her past work -- the songs on here sound less folk-rocky, and more like an orchestral Regina Spektor, or perhaps a more melodiously-voiced, less crack-fairy Joanna Newsom.
First of all, there are strings. Lots of strings. Whole streams of violins sweep, whirl, slice, merrily saunter, soar and cascade through the melodies, and when required to they can also chirp and twitter their way through the quirkier portions like a flock of string-powered birds. You can also hear some piano woven in there, along with some even mellower horns -- and of course the accordion pops up every now and then to give the songs a vaguely French flavour. If there's a problem with the instrumentation, it's that often the melodies sound very similar from one song to the next.
But lovely as the instrumentation is, George's voice is what really sells this -- husky, sweet and flexible, and able to stand above all the strings and accordions without having to try too hard. She can half-speak through a quirky love song ("... hoping for a little rest/while fighting off your sleeplessness/haunted by the ghost of you/reminds you what you didn't do") as easily as she can sing vivid ones ("skin and bones and blood and stones/and gold and lace and men and mice... a state of mind to intertwine/now love is blind/a rough design but still sturdy").
Inara George's second solo album lives up to its inviting title, and manages to mix quirky indiepop and classical instrumentation with few hiccups. Lovely.
Gets Better and Better the more you listen to it October 24, 2008
Infectious tunes and outrageously surprising arrangements. Both my 13-year-old daughter and I (43-year-old mother) love this CD.
 OK, but lacking October 5, 2008
I have to admit that I came into this album with high expectations. The idea of the great Van Dyke Parks with a female songwriter/vocalist immediately reminded me of Joanna Newsom's incredible Ys. In some ways this albums is a sort of Ys II, but it falls short in other respects.
These songs that the catchy melodies, emotional swells and long narrative arcs that make Ys so engaging.
Instead, this collection just seems "pretty" - lacking the substance of Newsom's epics.
Overall, it just doesn't have the energy or vision that I was hoping for.
 Contemporary music of the highest order August 23, 2008
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
"An Invitation" is a collaboration across generations and a recording to treasure. Inara George and Van Dyke Parks go back a long way -- to 1974, when Inara (daughter of Little Feat's Lowell George) was born.
"An Invitation" is much like a theater-piece, complete with overture and a closing "Good night, good night to all of you." The songs are beautiful and spare; George sings them in a strong, cool, unstagey voice that makes the meaning of every word register. Her poignant and witty lyrics offer varied glimpses of someone in love, desirous, self-abasing, jubilant, ruefully self-aware, still hopeful. Parks' arrangements for small orchestra are elegant and endlessly supportive.
"An Invitation" is inviting. I've listened to this CD five times in two days, and will be listening again and again. It's contemporary music of the highest order.
Mesmerizingly beautiful August 16, 2008
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
The review title says it all. I count myself extremely fortunate that I stumbled across this record by accident. It was the happiest accident I've had in years.
A beautiful voice, sometimes quirky tunes, and the amazingly lush arrangements by Van Dyke Parks.
I can't stress enough how delighted I am with this record. The orchestral arrangements are so beautiful I could even listen to the record without the vocals and still be taken by it.
No, you don't have to be a fan of this-or-that type of music to enjoy it. Rather, you just have to have a sense of and appreciation for the carefree whimsy of songwriting and music in general.
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