WESTSIDE COWBOY HIT THE GROUND RUNNING WITH BREAKTHROUGH DEBUT ‘IT GOES ON’
ALBUM REVIEW | WESTSIDE COWBOY – IT GOES ON by Taylor Campbell
I first heard about Westside Cowboy after the band won Glastonbury’s emerging talent festival in 2025. The band opened the Woodsies stage on the festival’s final day, and were a roaring success. Annoyingly, I spent the better part of that Sunday scanning wristbands at an entry gate miles away, and missed even the echoes of their fourth performance of the weekend. Seemingly in answer to my prayers, Westside Cowboy accompanied Geese for the third leg of their Getting Killed tour, and I was able to dance to their uproarious opening set at Barrowlands on March 21st. The band has played some astonishing shows since their genesis in 2023, and their first album, It Goes On, is hotly anticipated.
It Goes On is ridden with train-clacking, percussive verses and chasing guitar melodies. The songs are, for the most part, fast and easy to dance to. Jimmy Bradbury and Reuben Haycocks’ are each fantastic throughout the guitar-heavy record, held tight by Paddy Murphy’s remarkable prowess on drums. Aofie Anson O’Connell’s basslines bring depth and keep the same break-neck pace. Reason for the Geese comparison is self-evident, but I also hear hints of The Moldy Peaches on ‘Coyote‘, and am reminded of LCD Soundsystem throughout the record – however Westside Cowboy are their own animal, and It Goes On is honest on the subject of starting out.
Songs like ‘Worried Age’ barely seem to take a breath, which has the band reach a thrumming fever-pitch by its final verse. ‘Worried Age’ is followed by ‘Big Wheels’, which keeps on with the theme of burn-out –“big wheels keep on turning round and round/the steam trail keeps on pounding to the ground” – but sounds like the steady drip of rain that just keeps coming. All four band members contribute vocals which are often melancholic or despondent, even getting het up on ‘Pin Up Boys’, and Aoife Anson O’Connell’s voice often takes the form of a yodelling cry. Haycocks and O’Connell have propulsive vocal chemistry, the former’s drone becomes one with the latter’s whistle, two different sounds which give voice to the same feeling of restlessness and anxiety.
My favourite song on the album, ‘Well Done Kid, You Did It’, is hidden four tracks down. The refrain of “hold onto that thought” which is repeated to the song’s end functions as a decent blurb for the record as a whole – as in, remember the brevity and madness of this moment, before everything gives way into the absolute undeniable fame that is surely coming round the corner. ‘Well Done Kid, You Did It’, ticks faster and faster, mimicking how time has begun to wear thin, and is
Whatever their anxieties, Westside Cowboy hang on to their sense of humour, the last words of the album blankly stated – “That’s all”. But we all know it won’t be, this is only the beginning of what has so far been an unbelievable race toward the sun for Westside Cowboy.
It Goes On, the fantastic debut album from Westside Cowboy is all yours on Friday 21st August via Island Records. You can pick up a copy or listen on your preferred streaming service HERE.
With Westside Cowboy’s November UK tour and record store appearances nearly sold out, demand for the band is at an all-time high. You can still see them perform, however, at the Green Man Festival, Reading & Leeds Festival, and the Rock n Roll Circus in Sheffield. Check out all their upcoming live dates HERE.
