Less than a year ago, a lively New Century Hall welcomed a barrage of teenage fans. Anticipation scurried across the venue’s wooden floorboards for one of indie’s rising stars, the Los Angeles starlet Blondshell. But before fans got to hear her distinct brand of angsty yet assured alt-rock, a group of mildly nervous, severely starstruck and largely unknown adolescents staggered on stage, with not much more than a couple of pedals, some ramshackle guitars from Johnny Roadhouse Music, and a kick drum with ‘WSCB’ duct taped across it.
Those taped letters stood for the band’s name: Westside Cowboy, the Manchester four-piece whose style of rattling and youthful indie rock has carried them to stages far bigger than New Century Hall over the past year.
Prior to forming, the group were studying at the Royal Northern College of Music, and had spent their time stumbling across different projects that struggled to take off. In vocalist and guitarist Reuben Haycocks’ words, they were “giving up trying” to make complex outsider music, their sound an antidote for the post-punk headache that bands like black midi had once boasted.
Their band name, which refers to 19th century New York cowboys, is not the only thing Westside Cowboy borrowed from across the pond: their sound is self-dubbed “Britainicana.” Five demos fleshed-out the style, as on the band’s first EP “This Better Be Something Great”, which bumbled with bright-eyed charm, bustling vocal layers and enough buzz to attract major labels. A win at the Glastonbury Emerging Talent competition and a second EP gave Westside Cowboy’s reputation a boost.
Nine months on, Westside Cowboy scale up their initial ideas on ‘It Goes On’. Bottling some heady debut album magnetism, the band combine the earnest and hopeful tone of their early material with more complex songwriting: stampeding drums, dry yet vibrant vocals, and a refined knack for folding complex feelings into deceptively simple-sounding songs.
One of Westside Cowboy’s greatest strengths is their merry-go-round of vocal performances. In the absence of a clear frontperson, the group feel communal, accommodating an array of varied and emotionally charged songwriting methods. Serene guitars and delicate lyricism on ‘Big Wheels’ makes Jimmy Bradbury sound like late John Lennon. But one track later, at the climax of ‘Pin Up Boys’, bassist and vocalist Aoife O’Connell is trading energetic and shouty lines with Haycocks over janky rhythms and muddy guitar.
The rotating vocals allow each member’s idiosyncrasies to surface. ‘Coyote’ begins with a heartwarming and warbly vocal performance from O’Connell, but shifts to an angry critique of world leaders. O’Connell’s writing has always been politically driven (see the opener of ‘So Much Country’, ‘Strange Taxidermy’, a song about treatment of the world’s oldest horse, and his taxidermied head). She set up ‘No Band Is An Island’, a charity gig event in Manchester partnering with charities that provide aid to Palestinian refugees, resistance groups, and hospitals in Palestine.
O’Connell’s bass playing dances with Haycocks’ guitar throughout the record, often mimicking many of the band’s noted inspirations. The closer “You Could Have Died There On The Dancefloor” brings memories of Chicago contemporaries Horsegirl’s twee pop, whereas “Paperchains”’ storm of strumming is reminiscent of Squid.
Crafting atmosphere through lyricism has never been a struggle for Westside Cowboy. The songwriting on “It Goes On” is grounded in youthful imperfection. On penultimate ballad “Take My Leaving As I Love You”, Haycocks croons: “Now I’ll leave you alone, now I know that it is best / take my leaving as I love you, as my last leaving promise”. The lyric reads simple, but feels relatably inexperienced, an effect accentuated by his coming-of-age cadence that embodies the sentiment of the whole album. Debuts can be unpolished in execution, but the scuffs on ‘It Goes On’ only give the album more personality. They’re a product of the sound Westside Cowboy, and other British bands like Wyatt, Bramwell, and Good Flying Birds, have built: a playful, sparking brand of indie that has your body flailing and your heart aching.
