What’s Next for Westside Cowboy: Dobro Single Review

Words: Gethin Marshall

Images: Clémentine Schneidermann | @clementine.schneidermann

It is a very good time to be a young, fresh indie rock band in the UK. Thankfully for one of

Manchester’s newest names, Westside Cowboy are all of these things and more. Riding the wave of the windmill scene of the beginning of the decade and enjoying a meteoric rise since their formation in 2023, the band has released two critically acclaimed EPs in 2025 and 2026 respectively, signing to Island Records and winning Glastonbury’s Emerging Talent competition along the way.

So. What next?

The debut album is often the most critical, make-or-break moment in the determination of an emerging band’s success, and this is the ultimate test the fresh-faced quartet will face on the 21st of August with their very own inaugural offering, It Goes On. In the final stretch of the build-up for this record, they have released a third single from the 11-song tracklist- the subversively simple Dobro.

Produced by the talented Loren Humphrey, with the pedigree of production for the likes

of Geese, Wunderhorse, Arctic Monkeys and Lana Del Rey under his belt, the 2-minute,

45-second track packs a significant amount of retro-static slacker charm into its short runtime. Over the course of the song, cautiously upbeat, clean riffs build into a crackling, fuzzy, simultaneously melancholic and joyous crescendo, with Jimmy Bradbury’s lead vocals joined by Aoife Anson O’Connell’s signature harmonies. From the band themselves, “A song for perhaps a younger self? For that moment of waiting and isolation in the hopes of a return. Or it could just be a song about a weird guitar. Who knows!”

Offering more insight, Westside Cowboy describe the track as a “strut song, over two

minutes in length but just under three.” This shorter track length does well to whet the palate without entirely filling the listener up. Along with the other two singles already released, Pin Up Boys and Kick Stones (The Boys), this single successfully captures my interest for their upcoming album, which will be supported by an autumn/winter headline tour- their biggest to date- with sold-out shows at London’s O2 Forum Kentish Town and Manchester’s Albert Hall.

Overall, Dobro presents a yet-more cohesive, well-produced sound that doesn’t dampen

Westside Cowboy’s indie charm, and indicates a strong direction for their path to success in the future- a path that I, for one, would like to join them on.