With some bands and musicians, it’s easy to identify their musical inspirations and loves. They wear their influences on their sleeve, perhaps even producing almost derivative tracks. With Air, it isn’t quite so easy. One of the aspects that I love about the duo’s music is how different it is: pop but not really pop, unique but diverse.

Their compilation of a Late Night Tales album then is a chance to glimpse their myriad influences. The latest in a long line of acclaimed artists, including Flaming Lips, Groove Armada and Nightmares on Wax, to share their personal musical collection, Nicolas Godin and Jean-Benoît Dunckel have compiled a selection of 18 tracks.

One of the main themes to remain constant throughout the album is the emphasis on the song, or to be clearer, the traditional style of song. There’s a nod to the 60s, with The Band’s I Shall Be Released and Scott Walker’s The Old Man’s Back Again (a French style song from an American). Soul singer Minnie Riperton’s ever so sweet Lovin’ You is included, alongside the more moody Metal Heart from Cat Power. The distinctive baritone voice of Lee Hazlewood, best known for writing These Boots Are Made For Walking, comes through loud and clear on My Autumn’s Done Come.

Woven in amongst these songs are classical tracks from film soundtracks, not surprising given Air’s composing of The Virgin Suicides soundtrack and contribution to the Lost in Translation soundtrack. Tracks from Italian composer Nino Rota (La Dolce Vita and The Godfather), French composer Georges Delerue (Platoon and Steel Magnolias) and Chinese composer Tan Dun (Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and Hero) are included. The album wraps up with the truly classical music of Ravel’s Pavane Pour Une Enfante Défunte, following Air’s only track on the album, their collaboration with the writer Alessandro Baricco on Musica.

An album that moves between the melancholic and the lyrical, the ambient and the classical, Late Night Tales is both a welcome gift to Air fans and an album in its own right.