Westside Cowboy – 'It Goes On' Album Review
Updated: Aug 22
Manchester’s fastest-rising band turns growing pains, friendship and the uncertainty of young adulthood into a debut that feels both thrillingly immediate and deeply human.
For a band crowned one of Britain’s most exciting new guitar prospects after winning Glastonbury’s Emerging Talent Competition and building a tremendous reputation on the live circuit, the temptation to overcomplicate their debut must have been substantial. Instead, the Manchester quartet have delivered an album that understands the power of good guitar, a memorable melody and four musicians who genuinely sound like they have a deep connection.
Their self-described “Britainicana” remains the defining framework, but It Goes On stretches beyond the novelty of the term. There are traces of alt-country, indie rock, Americana, and post-punk 1990s guitar sounds, yet the album refuses to feel trapped by nostalgia. Westside Cowboy wear their influences openly, but the album feels like a collection of memories being reassembled into something new.
The opening ‘Kick Stones (The Boys)’ makes that clear almost immediately. Its looping guitars, restless drums and gradually expanding vocals create a rush that feels both loose and naturally controlled. It is the sound of a band following instinct, allowing repetition and momentum to become their own form of euphoria. That chemistry is central to It Goes On. Jimmy Bradbury, Reuben Haycocks and Aoife Anson O’Connell trade vocals throughout, while Paddy Murphy’s drumming provides the connective tissue, giving the record the communal energy of four friends who seamlessly synchronise together.
That sense of togetherness also gives the album its emotional weight. The album repeatedly returns to topics of change, uncertainty and the uncomfortable business of finding yourself. On ‘Worried Age’, youthful anxiety becomes a restless, rattling surge, while ‘Well Done Kid, You Did It’ finds reassurance in the fact that becoming someone different does not mean losing who you were. ‘Paper Chains’ is an effortlessly likeable indie singalong, while ‘Dobro’ draws on dusty Americana and 90s alternative rock, shifting between musical influences but retaining their individual sound to o merge them with a natural flow.
‘Big Wheels’ turns towards a mellower, dreamier sound, making it one of the album’s standalone tracks and a pause before launching into ‘Pin Up Boys’, one of the album’s clearest demonstrations of why Westside Cowboy have become such a formidable live act. The track builds with its knotty guitars and repeated vocals pushing towards a release without resorting to anything as obvious as a conventional climax. The band are particularly good at creating tension without resolving it in the most predictable way.
‘Coyote’ provides one of the record’s most striking shifts in perspective. Led by O’Connell’s gentle vocals, it begins with a tenderness before slowly shifting from a folk-inspired song to building up into an indie rock ballad. ‘Take My Leaving As I Love You’ takes that vulnerability even further, with its country-influenced balladry transforming the end of a relationship into something intimate and emotionally raw.
'You Could Have Died On The Dancefloor' rounds off the album by taking the sound back to indie-rock, with the message of 'please keep me around' tying up the emotional sentiments throughout the album
It Goes On feels warm, scruffy, ambitious and emotionally reassuring. It is a record built around the sound of friendship and instinct, where technical precision matters less than whether every guitar line, vocal hand-off and drum pattern feels natural. For all the excitement surrounding Westside Cowboy, this debut does not sound like a band desperately trying to justify the attention. It sounds like four people who have fallen in love with music and want to share that feeling with everyone else. And that might be why It Goes On works so well. Beneath the guitars, the references and the rapidly growing reputation is something much simpler: a young band figuring themselves out in real time.
