ALBUM REVIEW: Westside Cowboy – ‘It Goes On’

The first time that we at The Soundboard ever caught Westside Cowboy was in February 2025. They were opening for mary in the junkyard in Manchester’s YES, a venue with a capacity of approximately six people. Since then, they’ve eclipsed their erstwhile headliners by an utterly ludicrous degree. Any new movement has been lapped up by the indie crowd every single time, proclaiming Westside Cowboy as the new faces of the scene. Those don’t appear to be empty words, either; on their UK tour last year supporting fellow deafening buzzers Geese, you’d frequently hear tales of Westside Cowboy holding their own and giving their tourmates a run for their money. This was all before a debut full-length, too, by the way.

God, after that, imagine if the album was bad.

Well, obviously that isn’t the case; Westside Cowboy’s vision isn’t so easily dismantled. It’s among the extensive list of reasons for why they’re so superior among UK indie’s hierarchy. In an era where the indie landfill is back open for business (and business is booming), It Goes On feels so removed from that disposability.

For starters, it’s so good to have a Mancunian indie band whose influences reach beyond their own literal back garden. There’s barely a note of obvious Britpop or ‘90s graverobbery to be found across It Goes On, immediately a point in Westside Cowboy’s favour. Instead, they bring the sounds of contemporary, antsy indie-rock and post-punk, paired with subtle but keenly woven transatlantic influences. ‘Britanicana’ was the coinage for their sound; you don’t see it too often anymore, but it still applies. It’s broader than you might expect, too, spanning country moroseness on Patchwork and Take My Leaving As I Love You, to Midwest emo on Paper Chains, to a brass-bold lyrical lift from Proud Mary on Big Wheels.

Mostly, though, the pitch that Westside Cowboy work on is ‘What if Bruce Springsteen got started in the early 2020s in a Manchester student house?’ That’s exactly the impression given by Kick Stones (The Boys) or Worried Age—spindly and nervy, but would sound great with an E Street-style makeover. These are still very good songs on their own, mind. Westside Cowboy have a knack for tactile compositions that wind up being almost entirely crescendo, without that being their sole purpose. There are songs on It Goes On that feel borderline breakable, yet there’s always some kind of magnetic detail baked into them.

There’s a lot of great guitar versatility, even within its smaller means, like the tiny Rolling Stones-esque jive of Dobro or the longer southern-rock feel of Pin Up Boys. The bass, too, can work between Paper Chains’ chipperness and the anchoring trudge of Big Wheels. It’s Paddy Murphy’s drumming that’s the far-and-away standout, though. Regularly is her cited as Westside Cowboy’s ace in the hole, and you certainly get that when his default is the anxious roil of Kick Stones (The Boys) and Worried Age. Get to the spidery calamity at the end of Paper Chains, and it makes sense that the rest of the instrumental seems to fall away, almost as if it’s in awe of what’s going on in the back.

Conversely, the British indie hallmark of no one being all that good of a singer remains. As deliberate as it seems to be, it’s not the best choice for a band without a fixed frontperson. Everyone provides vocals to differing capacities, though Aoife Anson O’Connell being the notable standout as the only female voice in there probably says it all. (Even then, Coyote as her sole lead…it could be better.) But even so, it’s all very understated and humble; lines will often downturn into mumbles to show how small this is supposed to be. To expect the insularity of Westside Cowboy to break is picturing a different band entirely.

Thus, it makes a lot of sense when It Goes On broaches the anxiety of what’s next, and what the excitement of youth ultimately turns into. The nonchalance and matter-of-factness of its title tries to hide some real instability, though never gets very far. Lyrics about moving forward, framed in an almost uncomfortable way, ensure that. It’s written in a way that could come across as very pleased with its own poetry, if it weren’t so unassumingly performed.

At the same time, tension remains the operative force of It Goes On, in both the insurance of its winding without an obvious point to stop, and in the tacit discord that seeks to break it and often fails. The latter is such an interesting choice, because it gives Westside Cowboy yet another non-obvious angle to approach indie music from. Guitar curves and unfocused pianos sound away in the back of Patchwork; directly after, Take My Leaving As I Love You is soundtracked by rangeless, rickety strumming that’s borderline not musical. It’s got that Geese-esque, ‘post-indie’ feel to it, though with some of Westside Cowboy’s sharpened sensibilities, the regular indie-rock template remains in view.

Nevertheless, as a debut album that’s so willing to make the most of its design space, It Goes On is such a satisfying capstone on this first leg of Westside Cowboy’s journey. In the current UK scene, there’s nothing exactly like it, to its entire credit. The freshness and exploration ring out with clarion pitch, indicative of a band dismissing the big, quick and easy routes for something far more substantive. Theirs isn’t a model that’ll likely prove replicable by many others, but in parading the higher standards that indie music can have, it’s Westside Cowboy’s prize to claim. Here’s hoping it goes on (ha!) for a long while to come.

For fans of: Geese, Black Country, New Road, Pavement

‘It Goes On’ by Westside Cowboy is released on 21st August on Island Records.

Words by Luke Nuttall