(5 / 5)
Westside Cowboy’s debut album “It Goes On” is phenomenal.
The Manchester quartet Reuben Haycocks (guitar, vocals), Jimmy Bradbury (guitar, vocals), Aoife Anson O’Connell (bass, vocals) and Paddy Murphy (drums, vocals) pull off a winning combination of scruffy guitars, infectious melodies, country twang, big harmonies and a healthy dose of rock’n’roll attitude across 11 tracks of just over 35 minutes.
It is raw, playful and a lot of fun, but underneath the apparent looseness is some seriously impressive musicianship. Nothing feels forced or overworked. Four musicians who clearly know exactly what they are doing have somehow managed to make it sound completely effortless.
From the opening seconds of “Kick Stones (The Boys)”, there is a sense that this is a band who would rather throw themselves into a song than polish it to death.
The guitars are wiry and slightly unruly, Paddy Murphy’s drums keep everything charging forwards, and the vocals have an unfiltered energy that makes the whole thing feel alive and makes you want to hear it played loud in a packed room.
And that matters, because Westside Cowboy are, first and foremost, a brilliant live band. Their reputation has grown remarkably quickly, from those early days of simply getting together to play for fun, through their two EPs, sold-out headline shows and support slots with Black Country, New Road and Geese, to packed festival stages at Glastonbury, Green Man and End of the Road.
Their rise is refreshingly organic, and “It Goes On” captures much of that live energy without trying to smooth away the character that makes them so exciting in the first place. They describe their sound as “Britainicana”, which is actually a pretty good way of putting it.
It is a mix of alternative rock, folk, country, classic guitar, and even a touch of glam in the mix, but nothing feels like a straightforward exercise in nostalgia. Westside Cowboy take those influences and give them a distinct personality.
“Dobro” is a great example. The song brings a touch of slacker rock into the mix, with the band’s harmonies adding warmth to its more laid-back feel. “Pin Up Boys” is more urgent, building from a quieter opening into something much heavier, with Paddy Murphy’s increasingly frenetic drumming pushing the song forwards.
Elsewhere, “Paper Chains”, “Worried Age” and “Patchwork” show that there is considerably more going on here than youthful noise.
The production is a big part of why it works. Recorded with Loren Humphrey at Greenmount Studios in Leeds, “It Goes On” has been made to sound like a band playing together. For “Kick Stones (The Boys)”, they used The Velvet Underground’s live version of “‘What Goes On” as a reference, taking the loose, expansive feel of 70s rock and running it through their own much younger, more irreverent filter.
It is a particularly good fit for the song. The band have said they loved the way “Kick Stones (The Boys)” felt when they played it live, but were conscious that simply recording it that way could make them sound like they were aiming for stadium rock. Instead, they found their own way of keeping that huge energy while retaining the slightly chaotic character that makes Westside Cowboy unique.
There is plenty of emotion here too. “It Goes On” is essentially an album about being young and not quite knowing what comes next, the excitement, anxiety, confusion, desperation and blind hope that come with it. But Westside Cowboy never labour the point. The songs are heartfelt without becoming overly earnest, and funny or carefree moments sit comfortably alongside the more vulnerable ones.
That sense of community runs through the band beyond the music as well. They helped create “No Band Is An Island”, a Manchester collective that puts on fundraising nights featuring local artists alongside charities and campaign groups.
Their collaboration with FC United of Manchester on the video for “Kick Stones (The Boys)” feels like a natural extension of that outlook. FC United’s community-focused ethos: “making friends not millionaires”, seems to fit Westside Cowboy rather well.
What makes “It Goes On” particularly exciting is the sense that these four musicians are still at the beginning, discovering what they can do together. They have already come a long way in a short space of time.
Westside Cowboy have said they wanted to make an album for their younger selves, something immediate, concise and honest, made without worrying too much about what comes next. They have succeeded. “It Goes On” is messy in all the right places, packed with hooks and full of the sort of energy that is becoming increasingly rare in guitar music.
A phenomenal first album that sounds like four friends having the time of their lives in a band, and inviting everyone else along for the ride.
The album was launched with a packed and intimate in-store performance at Resident Music in Brighton last night (Wednesday 19th August), ahead of official release on Friday. This magazine was invited to the really fabulous, and really up-close-and-personal performance, where the EXCLUSIVE photographs here were taken.
The band will also play an ‘in-store’ at Rough Trade East in London tonight (20th).
The album’s release is followed by the band’s biggest headline run to date, taking them across Europe before returning to the UK in November and December. The tour follows festival appearances at Green Man, Leeds and Reading, while the wider autumn run takes in Nijmegen, Amsterdam, Cologne, Aarhus, Copenhagen, Berlin, Prague, Milan, Zurich, Brussels, Paris and Lille.
UK 2026 dates include:
24 Nov – St Luke’s, Glasgow
25 Nov – Newcastle University Students’ Union, Newcastle
26 Nov – Crookes Social Club, Sheffield
27 Nov – Irish Centre, Leeds
29 Nov – XOYO, Birmingham
30 Nov – The 1865, Southampton
01 Dec – Chalk, Brighton
02 Dec – O2 Forum Kentish Town, London
04 Dec – Electric Bristol, Bristol
05 Dec – Albert Hall, Manchester
Review & Photographs: By Manja Williams
(1 / 5) ‘Dull Zone’
(2 / 5) ‘OK Zone’
(3 / 5) ‘Decent Zone’
(4 / 5) ‘Super Zone’
(5 / 5) ‘Awesome Zone’
Recent Comments