Westside Cowboy – It Goes On Review: Edgy, Raw, Brilliance
By Manchester’s Westside Cowboy blend country twang, indie-rock attitude and restless guitars into an album with no skips from start to finish.
Manchester’s Westside Cowboy have spent the last couple of years turning heads with a sound they’ve dubbed “Britainicana” – a rough-edged collision of American country, British punk and the kind of guitar-driven swagger that feels distinctly their own. Now, on August 21, the four-piece finally deliver their debut album, It Goes On – a record that has been a long time coming for anyone who caught the band’s buzz-building Glastonbury appearance.
Made up of Aoife Anson O’Connell on bass, Jimmy Bradbury and Reuben Haycocks on guitars, with Haycocks also handling vocals, and Paddy Murphy behind the drums, Westside Cowboy have quickly established themselves as one of Manchester’s most exciting new guitar bands. It Goes On sees them bottle that live-wire energy into a debut that’s equal parts country twang, punk attitude and unapologetic indie-rock noise.
Picking the standouts on It Goes On is easy. I could have picked all 11, but these will have to do.
‘Kicks Stones (The Boys)’ flickers into life with a twitch of guitar before the drums crash in, and from there it’s a relentless surge forward. The guitars keep tightening the screws, each jittering riff pushing the track faster, louder and closer to breaking point as the momentum builds towards its crescendo. Then, just as it feels ready to explode, everything drops away. Aoife Anson O’Connell’s almost-whispered voice is left alone: “The boys are gone this time.” Repeated again and again, the line brings the song to an eerie, understated close — the calm after a storm of guitars and drums.
And then comes ‘Paper Chains’, perhaps the album’s most irresistible moment. Honestly, it’s hard to say exactly why. Maybe it’s the way it just “goes on and on and on…”, the lyric becoming a perfect description of the song itself as it bounces relentlessly forward. Where ‘Kicks Stones’ builds towards its release, ‘Paper Chains’ simply refuses to stop. It’s catchy, bouncy and ridiculously infectious, with a groove that gets under your skin before you even realise you’re singing along. There’s nothing complicated about it — and that’s precisely the point. Westside Cowboy know when to let a song breathe, when to push it harder, and when to simply let it go on and on and on.
‘Big Wheels’ slows everything down, shifting gears from the album’s more frantic moments into something heavier and more reflective. At its heart, it feels like a meditation on the fact that nothing ever really stands still in life — everything keeps moving, changing and rolling forward, whether we’re ready for it or not. The track captures that constant motion with a quieter, more thoughtful weight, giving the album room to breathe without ever truly bringing it to a halt.
Reuben Haycocks and Aoife Anson O’Connell come together on ‘Pinup Boys’, their voices finding a natural chemistry that gives the track a different edge. O’Connell’s vocals are almost Banshee-like — sharp, haunting and slightly unhinged — cutting through Haycocks’ delivery and injecting the song with a raw, restless energy. It’s a moment where Westside Cowboy’s indie edge really comes to the fore, showing just how much character they can wring from a guitar, a voice and a little bit of chaos.
Closing track ‘You Could Have Died There On The Dancefloor’ feels like the moment Westside Cowboy finally find their place amid all the noise. After an album built on restless guitars and constant forward momentum, there’s something almost reflective about arriving here. “I was outside looking in,” Haycocks sings, a line that feels like it could sum up the journey of the album itself — from watching the chaos unfold from the sidelines to stepping straight into it.
It’s a fitting closer: not a grand finale, but a moment of realisation. Westside Cowboy aren’t looking in anymore. They’ve found their sound, found their voice and, judging by It Goes On, they’re only just getting started. Then, with the final words of the album, comes a simple, almost throwaway conclusion: “That’s all.”
And maybe that’s the point. After all the noise, all the guitars and everything that has come before it, sometimes there’s nothing left to say.
*Record label: Island Records
*Release date: August 21, 2026
It Goes On Tracklisting
1. Kick Stones (The Boys)
2. Paper Chains
3. Dobro
4. Well Done Kid, You Did It
5. Worried Age
6. Big Wheels
7. Pin Up Boys
8. Coyote
9. Patchwork
10. Take My Leaving As I Love You
11. You Could Have Died There On The Dancefloor