I don’t believe in love at first sight, but I may have to reconsider. Westside Cowboy’s EP So Much Country ‘Till We Get There is a masterclass in indie songwriting, bending between the powerhouse post-punk of the last few years and gentle indie folk. Sometimes you spend 30 seconds with a project and know it’s something special; others take a little longer. This is by no means a slow burner.
Westside Cowboy is made up of Aoife Anson-O’Connell (bass and vocals), Reuben Haycocks (guitar/vocals), James Bradbury (guitar/vocals) and Paddy Murphy (drums). The Manchester four-piece made waves in late 2024 with their single ‘I’ve Never Met Anyone I Thought I Could Really Love (Until I Met You)’, followed by their introductory EP This Better Be Something Good. So Much Country ’Till We Get There builds on these earlier releases and presents a sound that is more sonically rich and diverse than its predecessors. As a young band, their sound is evolving fast, and to see such a dramatic shift between projects land on its feet is always rewarding.
The opening track ‘Strange Taxidermy’ begins with a Celtic drone, bringing to mind imagery of England’s wide, green pastures. The song builds and falls, guitar and vocal joining to tell the story of a life ending as taxidermy. The keys, played chaotically at the end, fill the record with a sense of disorder and open the EP to a world of possibility. Although I had listened to the two singles on this EP previously — ‘Can’t See’ and ‘Don’t Throw Rocks’ — after hearing ‘Strange Taxidermy’ I was once again unsure of the path the band were taking.
‘Can’t See’ and ‘Don’t Throw Rocks’ are sister tracks: they relate and flow into each other particularly well, both leaning into a more conventional indie sound with fast guitar, bar chords and bass taking the forefront. The lyrical arrangements on this EP are superb and carry a sense of urgency — not rushed, but always maintaining the feeling of time slipping away. The EP begins with birth and death, continues with the line “There’s so much country until we get there”, and then ‘Don’t Throw Rocks’ opens with “The watch on your arm tocks over and over again.” Westside Cowboy have said themselves that these tracks capture the essence of time, and it remains one of the project’s central themes.
The fourth track on the EP is ‘The Wahs’, and I will say that on first listen it feels slightly out of place, striking a markedly different tone from the rest of the project. That’s not to say it isn’t a great track — it is — but there isn’t even a shred of the melancholy that hangs over the rest of the record. It is, for lack of a better term, an indie anthem. The vocals here sound great from Aoife, Reuben and James; the back-and-forth between female and male vocals contrasts superbly, giving it the feel of a ballad. This track is the most similar to their breakthrough single ‘I’ve Never Met Anyone I Thought I Could Really Love’, with its upbeat, springy energy, catchy riff and crashing drums. You could easily dance to this. The band have described themselves as “Britannica”, a play on Americana, and what started as wordplay has become fitting — particularly for ‘The Wahs’.
The final track on the EP is titled ‘In the Morning’, and it’s lovely. Stripped back with a lo-fi feel, the lyrics speak of a normal-ish day (I say normal-ish as it mentions a crowbar, which most people don’t interact with daily). The line “Watch the city be the death of me tonight” speaks to the more chaotic moments of the record and allows this wistful closer to reflect on what came before. It’s an end-of-day song: there are no drums and, although short (less than two minutes), it’s a perfect closer to such an energetic EP. Once again, the contrasting vocals between the members take centre stage and work spectacularly together.
Words: Dexter Clark