Various Artists – Late Night Tales: Midlake

The concept behind a Late Night Tales release is simple enough: a featured artist presents us with a mix of songs that sound good – you guessed it – at night. If it sounds like an exercise in cynical commercialism, it probably is. The series began around ten years ago, at a time when CDs with titles like Acoustic Chill Out still shifted units, and the selection offered up here by Texan country outfit Midlake doesn't take us too far from that territory.

There are some undeniable classics present, and most – surprise – are pleasing enough to listen to at night: Scott Walker's Copenhagen, and Nico's These Days, to name just two. The question that arises, however, is why? The MP3 generation prefers to craft its own mixes; and Midlake's time would be better served creating something that staked a claim for the continuing legitimacy of the album format, rather than highlighting the pointlessness of the vacuously-themed compilation. [Sam Wiseman]