It Goes On

If there’s a theme running through the debut album by Westside Cowboy, it’s the sense of time barrelling forward. It’s why the Manchester quartet—made up of Jimmy Bradbury (vocals, guitar), Reuben Haycocks (vocals, guitar), Aoife Anson-O’Connell (vocals, bass) and Paddy Murphy (drums)—called the record It Goes On. “It’s not a concept album,” Haycocks tells Apple Music, “but it just so happens that when we finished all the songs and looked back over them, there were themes of time moving and things in motion. When we saw that pattern, we then saw that in the music too.” It chimes nicely with the fact that the band have been on a constant upward curve since forming in 2023, their early single releases introducing a thrillingly captivating indie-rock band for whom a big breakthrough seemed inevitable. Produced by Geese collaborator Loren Humphrey, It Goes On builds on that promise and then some with its 11 hook-laden songs that weave between emotive guitar pop, dusty Americana-tinged contemplatives, ramshackle rock ’n’ roll and euphoric builds. Their guiding principle was that It Goes On had to sound like a debut album. “The only thing we were tied to was that we really wanted it to sound like a first album, we really wanted it to sound young and energetic,” says Haycocks. On that note, it’s mission accomplished. There’s a sense of exuberance about It Goes On that is infectious, a record both imbued with the intoxicating alchemy of the band’s live shows, but it also has a depth to it that reveals more of itself with repeated listens. Here, Haycocks and his bandmates talk us through the album, track by track. “Kick Stones (The Boys)” Reuben Haycocks: “We always had a love-hate, mostly hate, relationship with the song—we felt like after playing it live loads, we’d maybe lost the original intention of what the song was meant to be. I was personally against having it on the album because I hated it so much. But we thought, in order for this song to still exist and in or