Westside Cowboy – It Goes On

From the moment I heard Westside Cowboy, it was evident that the Manchester four-piece were on the indie rock fast-track. The early buzz around the band accelerated with January’s So Much Country ‘Till We Get There EP, which was such a convincing statement of intent that I wondered if they’d perhaps peaked too soon. Thankfully, It Goes On emphatically blows that theory out of the water. Confident without ever seeming self-satisfied, and varied without coming across as desperate to impress, it’s an astonishingly polished debut album that oozes fun, friendship, and a startling level of musicianship that makes sense when you consider they met at Manchester’s Royal Northern College of Music.

Impressively, It Goes On succeeds without recycling a single song from So Much Country ‘Till We Get There, which speaks to Westside Cowboy’s confidence in their new material—and their rate of progression. In this way, It Goes On is their Surfer Rosa to the So Much Country EP’s Come On Pilgrim: new chapter, same impeccable standards.

But what does it sound like? The band have used the slightly clumsy term ‘Britainicana,’ which I guess captures the duality of their sound. Opener “Kick Stones (The Boys)” definitely draws from the urgent riffing of the Velvet Underground, but it also brings to mind the early work of Arcade Fire and more recent offerings from Chicago’s Friko. Meanwhile, the very next track, “Paper Chains,” sounds distinctly British, with its choppy rhythms evoking Field Music, and lyrics such as “Behind the brave faced buildings all across the coast/There is a land coloured grey in the constant cold,” which could only have been written by someone familiar with Northern English winters.

“Coyote” is a fine example of Westside Cowboy’s country side, with its Big Thief-esque intro (Aoife Anson O’Connell’s quivering vocals will appeal to fans of Adrianne Lenker) giving way to a more muscular finale. And while momentum stalls during the subdued combination of “Patchwork” and “Take My Leaving As I Love You,” the rousing finale “You Could Have Died There On The Dancefloor” brings It Goes On to an appropriately upbeat close, its final words—“I am everything but perfect/But I’m trying, so please keep me around”—ringing out like a plea to the listener.

Of course, such a plea feels entirely unnecessary. With It Goes On, Westside Cowboy have truly arrived, and something tells me they’ll be sticking around for a while.

It Goes On is out now via Island.