There seems to have been an inevitability about Westside Cowboy from the get-go.
Thankfully, it has seen them harness that rolling upward trajectory and deliver an incredibly accomplished debut album that does justice to their release journey and live shows so far.
It felt inevitable because since forming in 2023, Jimmy Bradbury (vocals, guitar), Reuben Haycocks (vocals, guitar), Aoife Anson O’Connell (vocals, bass) and Paddy Murphy (vocals, drums) have been on the receiving end of sweeping praise and a certain degree of hype from within the cooler circles of the music industry press in this country since forming.
While those factors definitely help a band along – and supporting recent flavour of the month Geese on their sold-out UK tour isn’t going to do much to halt that progress – you also need a bit of talent to back it up. Westside Cowboy have that in abundance.
They are now over twenty songs into their career, thanks to a couple of great EP’s (This Better Be Something Great and So Much Country ‘Til We Get There) and now this debut long-player. Seemingly, they always manage to make something different out of every song they release.
They keep you on your toes throughout this album, helped partly by the variety of voices that either take the lead or join each other on tracks, but it’s more than that; it’s in the music, too, which is why you have a track like recent single ‘Kick Stones’ that builds and takes you in different directions guitar wise. Then it’s followed up by the equally impressive ‘Paper Chains’ that feels even more urgent and chaotic in a good way.
If you’ve been lucky enough to see them live so far, you’ll know they have an energy to them that is equal parts balance and frenetic, often within the same song. I did wonder if they would continue to be able to get that across on record, particularly as this is out on a major label, but they’ve done it. ‘Worried Age’ is gloriously vibrant, a wall of noise and a fervent modern-day anthem in waiting; and then you get the much more measured ache of ‘Big Wheels’ to follow it up.
Producer Loren Humphrey has helped the band harness that ying and yang between the scuzzy sound that they’ve always done so well and also provided moments of polish in the production too, that allow the songs to breathe where they need to. ‘Pin Up Boys’ is a prime example of that; it’s borderline 90’s grunge almost in places, but also strips it back at just the right points to give the backing vocal from O’Connell the chance to shine through and take the wind out of the track to keep it interesting.
If you haven’t heard anything by them before, it might take you a few listens to get them. I came very close to ignoring their debut EP after one rushed listen of a couple of tracks, but Westside Cowboy and by extension It Goes On, are a band and an album that you need to submerge yourself in.
That repeated listening is rewarded – you’ll pick up on the beauty of ‘Patchwork’ after a few listens and prime era The Strokes will come to mind when you hear ‘Dobro’ for the third or fourth time. Thankfully, no large amounts of Casablancas-style auto-tune were damaged in the making of this album. It lets the rough edges prod you in the chest when it wants to with a rustic sounding track like ‘Take My Leaving As I Love You’ and is so naturally good for that organic sound.
I’d be very surprised if it’s not being talked about in end of year polls as one of the debuts of 2026 and if you want to catch their exhilarating live show in Leeds, then you have three very different opportunities:
They play an album launch show at Jumbo Records on the 25th August, The Ballroom Stage at Leeds Festival on Friday 28th August and their own full headline show at Leeds Irish Centre on the 27th November.
It Goes On is out through Island Records on Friday 21st August.
