Reviewed by Harry Cooper

In a landscape where so much modern music feels tailor-made to slot neatly into a marketing campaign or “for fans of…” playlists, genuine authenticity has become a rare commodity. With ’It Goes On’, Westside Cowboy operates with a complete indifference to the rulebook, instead going all-in on what feels good to each other. Arriving after two stellar EPs and an impressive live resume, it's the lack of self-consciousness that makes the band’s debut so resonant and a thrilling jolt against the grain. 

Recorded in Leeds with return producer Loren Humphrey (Geese, Tame Impala), the record takes cues from an era before digital editing tools smoothed the edges of rock music, and the happy accidents were smoothed out. The band’s interplay is afforded centre stage, with an emphasis on great collective sound rather than sterilising individual elements, performance and recording alike. When extra production flourishes do crop up, they evoke that late-60s watershed of studio experimentation and playful extremes rather than informed restraint. The recordings feel like a snapshot of a moment in time, its performances delivered with the urgency of a band celebrating the song they're in as much as executing a gameplan. As bassist Aoife Anson-O'Connell explains:

"If you go in with the preconceived notion of what you're doing, it's sort of destined to fail because you're not being yourself."

This untampered spirit translates into pure, open-road momentum across the record’s front half. Propelled by Paddy Murphy’s wind-up-and-go drums, the tracks roll with an infectious collective energy. Now a band staple, the vocal duties are shared however the track requires. “Maybe this is just what I am now”  - Guitarist Reuben Haycock anchors the core with grounded acceptance, and when lead guitarist Jimmy Bradbury takes the wheel on highlight ‘Dobro’, an easy-going country roll gets blindsided by a jagged guitar eruption where the wheels threaten to come completely off. Crucially, it never feels like showing off or self-indulgent virtuosity; every chaotic burst exists to serve the adrenaline of the song.

Beneath those sonic heights lies a lyrical world that is tender, earthy, and distinctly lived-in. Rather than dealing in sweeping rock clichés, the songwriting zeroes in on the messy, bittersweet realities of early adulthood - from the gentle anti-capitalist lament on ‘Coyote’ to the quiet sting of watching plans unravel. That emotional weight comes into sharpest focus in the final stretch, trading collective optimism for a bruised vulnerability. On ‘Patchwork’, Aoife steps back from her soaring vocal countermelodies to deliver a roomy, childlike piano take that drifts like a woozy memory, setting a heartbreaking backdrop as Jimmy reflects “I wanna know where my move went wrong”.  That tenderness paves the way for the devastating penultimate track, ‘Take My Leaving As I Love You’. Stripping the arrangements back to bare essentials, it leaves Reuben alone with an acoustic guitar played as if to imitate a longing string section. As the only track across the entire album to feature just a single voice, its unfiltered intimacy hits like a cold shock - a moment of solitary and intimate breakup grief, on a record otherwise defined by togetherness.

It’s this friction between small-town intimacy and wide-open horizons that gives It Goes On such an emotional bite. Crucially, its themes of transition and hope hit home because the messengers are living that very sentiment: four close friends watching their world transform in real time with every passing month. Having been thrust from Glastonbury’s Woodsies Stage to tours with Geese and Black Country New Road, Westside Cowboy head toward milestone headline nights at Manchester’s Albert Hall and London’s O2 Kentish Town Forum with a debut that completely refuses to pander. Unvarnished, moving, and playful ‘It Goes On’ is the sound of four friends playing on their own terms - and letting the rest of the world catch up.

Trading standardised studio tropes for 70s room bleed and unfiltered expression, the Manchester quartet’s debut catches lightning in a bottle and lets it run wild.