Appropriating the memoir of late folk icon Dave Van Ronk, “Inside Llewyn Davis” tells the story of a musician struggling for recognition in Greenwhich Village’s folk scene of 1961, a time just before the ’60s became the ‘60s.

As Llewyn, actor and heretofore musically untested Oscar Isaac remains the soundtrack’s center, performing (live, as he does in the film) on half of the album’s 14 tracks. Shouldering the load with him are contributions from co-stars Justin Timberlake, Carey Mulligan and Stark Sands, along with folk luminaries past (Bob Dylan, Dave Van Ronk) and present (Marcus Mumford, Punch Brothers).

Isaac holds his own, for the most part. Gifted with a reedy voice that creaks pleasantly on “Hang Me, Oh Hang Me” and “The Shoals of Herring,” Isaac is likewise true when he’s belting out choruses on the solo version of “Fare Thee Well (Dink’s Song)”—though it’s the duet with Mumford that will probably sell the album singlehandedly, so soulful and beautifully melodic is the rendition.

Cynics will measure the quality of “Inside Llewyn Davis: Original Soundtrack Recording” against the success of its spiritual predecessor, the impossibly popular soundtrack to Joel and Ethan Coen’s Depression-era odyssey “O Brother, Where Art Thou?” Wringing one’s hands over whether the Coens (and returning producer T Bone Burnett) can catch lighting in a bottle twice, however, is a fruitless preoccupation considering the diverging artistic direction of this, their latest project. Where O Brother’s soundtrack worked as more traditional compilation of songs evoking the heyday of Southern roots music, “Inside Llewyn Davis” seeks to walk a much narrower path, one where the immediate narrative surrounding the film’s titular character adds meaning to the music, not the other way around.

It’s strange then that Isaac’s version of “Green, Green Rocky Road” has to contend with Van Ronk’s superior original at the record’s end. Sure, Van Ronk’s presence is justified given his influence, but it breaks the illusion that we’re listening to a product taken directly from the cultural source, revealing that “Inside Llewyn Davis: Original Soundtrack Recording” is regrettably lacking in both authenticity and character.

amaeche@mavs.coloradomesa.edu