Over the last year, Manchester’s quartet has taken up the baton from Geese as one of the most promising young bands of their generation. It’s no coincidence that the New York group chose them to open on their European tour. ‘It Goes On’ is the exhilarating culmination of the hype that has built up, and it also represents the sound of a band that doesn’t need any tricks to stand out.
«There will be plenty of time in the future for a triple album with trumpets and a string section, but for now this is music made by young people,» the group told NME. Westside Cowboy describe their songs as «austere» and «imperfect,» and they could not be more right. The lack of arrangements and overdubs sets them apart from many of their contemporaries: what you hear is what you get. Just like their striking live show, the Brits’ debut is an explosion of raw energy treated with the most naked production a rookie band can afford. By the way, it’s in the hands of Loren Humphrey (Tame Impala, Lana Del Rey).
‘Kick Stones (The Boys)’ opens the LP with a furious torrent of guitars that only grows as it unfolds, and in its blend of chaos, apparent improvisation, and a fondness for melodies it directly recalls Velvet Underground, albeit less experimental. This description can be applied to many of the tracks on the record: the unpredictable ‘Dobro’ includes a very brief solo inspired by ‘Run Run Run’, ‘Pin Up Boys’ wouldn’t sound out of place as part of ‘Loaded’, and the sweet ‘Big Wheels’ shows that Westside Cowboy also handle slower tempos. The ‘Britain-leaning’ vibe, so well captured on the album’s cover, is the result of mixing these influences with their local surroundings.
Despite the clear references, the most present sensation during ‘It Goes On’ is that you are listening to a fully oiled musical machine. All its pieces add up: Reuben Haycocks and Jimmy Bradbury on guitars, Aoife Anson O’Connell on bass, and Paddy Murphy on drums. All of them appear as vocalists throughout the album, noticeable especially on the upbeat ‘Paperchains’ or on the significant ‘Worried Age’, perhaps the best-written track on the record («We are a worried era / Where your panic feels more real than a thought»).
As with the music, the lyrics were also written by young people for young people, but it would hardly be fair to describe them as merely adolescent. The themes are typical of the age: love and heartbreak («Cars signal to me through the window / And I have nothing left to tell you»), the passage of time («Something changed when I grew older / Now the hours move like death»)… However, they also address issues such as abusive industrialization and the deterioration of nature in the almost peaceful ‘Coyote’: «A real man of the town / It was time for this progress / Oh, Mr. Coyote / I think it’s best if you move.»
The LP loses bite toward the end with the folk-tinged ‘Patchwork’, but gains heart with the devastating ‘Take My Leaving As I Love You’: «Throw your coins into a well / And the water will taste of copper / And if wishing made sense / This conversation would not matter». Lyrics that Cameron Winter could well have sung. ‘It Goes On’ closes with the seventies-flavoured and chorus-free ‘You Could Have Died There On The Dancefloor’, a preview of the musical territory toward which the exciting Manchester band is headed. Whatever the future holds, it’s clear they are moving forward.
