Late Night Tales: Various Artists [compiled by Turin Breaks]

The continuing trend for celebrity compilations continues. Turin Brakes’ foray into the field is billed as a DJ set but is really merely a beautifully packaged mix tape. As such, it pulls out a few of the stock tricks of the trade. Concentrating mainly on laid back acoustic and blues music and a dash of funk, the album mixes songs with instrumentals, the odd rockier number lifting the tempo (the splendid Silver Jews) and features the obligatory soundtrack number, in this case John Barry’s ‘Midnight Cowboy’. The choice of artists is wilfully obscure, and while it’s nice to hear such curios as the oft overlooked G Love & Special Sauce alongside a lovely Talk Talk track, sometimes nothing short of an exhilarating blast of pop music will do – something that Late Night Tales is sorely lacking. This is worthy but dull. A bit like the duo themselves, come to think of it.