Night Works: Urban Heat Island – review

Gabriel Stebbing cut his teeth in Metronomy and Your Twenties, so this, his solo debut, brings with it an expectation of arch electropop, and perhaps a decent light show. At first, Night Works appears to be more fragile than his previous work – album opener Boys Born in Confident Times sets a folksy, verbose precedent that is less appealing than much of what comes after. In fact, Urban Heat Island grows in muscle and might as it goes along, with the sonic intricacies that make up a song like Armajaro somehow managing to sound cheap and expensive at the same time. Later, these give way to more solid, confident, straight-up pop hits. The final four songs here – Share the Weather, Riches, Long Forgotten Boy and Arp – are ripped and bold, and there's much here to keep an eye on.