“A beautiful thing”: The 2002 song that shaped Westside Cowboy’s outlook
When Westside Cowboy burst onto the London scene at the end of 2024 with their thunderous ‘I’ve Never Met Anyone I Thought I Could Really Love (Until I Met You)’, alternative music fans didn’t just celebrate the long-awaited re-entrance of long title tracks into the fold, but enjoyed the collective realisation that an incredible new band was about to see out the dull year.
Perhaps it was the delicious mixture of differing vocals, from the honey-dripping warmth of James Bradbury to the delicate, whimsical tittering of Aoife Anson O’Connell, or indeed the incredibly catchy hook and bouncy drumming, but the track quickly became a staple on the playlist of any half-cool London pub.
It isn’t just the warm, comforting indie sway of their sonic landscape that sits well with listeners; the happy universalism of their non-specific lyrics means the songs become instantly relatable for all walks of life, from Radio 6 dads to kids in short skirts completing their GCSEs in sticky sports halls.
Take ‘Drunk Surfer’, one of their rockier cuts but no less hard-hitting as the band sings, “We can dance and pretend like it’s good for us, while razors line the skirting boards and the door is boarded up”. Atop the dynamic, shuffling instrumentation, the picture of a toxic relationship spiralling into the ether is identifiable to most ears.
Westside Cowboy’s preference for the universal over the specific (exemplified nowadays by the likes of Phoebe Bridgers and Alex G) was inspired by one specific group: Wilco. In a recent interview with Big Takeover, the band explained, “I really like that Wilco’s ‘Jesus, Etc’ wasn’t written for any reason”.
Reuben Haycocks went on, “Apparently, Jeff Tweedy just had words that came out of him. He said he only realised what the meaning of the song was after he’d written it and played it live for the first time because somebody had spoken to him about it.”
Famously, ‘Jesus, Etc.’ was the fifth track on Wilco’s critically acclaimed 2002 album, Yankee Hotel Foxtrot; the band streamed the entire project for free on their website after the album was rejected by Reprise Records, before its official release through Nonesuch Records in 2002.
The universal appeal of the beloved song proved great inspiration for the up-and-comers, who explained admirably, “Only Jeff Tweedy can write a song like ‘Jesus, Etc’ by accident, but it’s a beautiful thing about music. None of our songs have to mean anything in their beginning. It’s the context that changes it for other people. It’s always got something for us, or at least we attach the tail to the donkey.”
Wilco isn’t the only inspiration for the critically renowned Manchester band, who recently gained a bigger following after supporting Brooklynites Geese on a short leg of their UK tour. In the underskirts of many tracks, a traditional folk music background can be heard, while songwriter Haycocks has previously expressed his fondness for the hugely underrated Fred Neil.
It’s certainly hard to keep track of the genre of such a talented band with so many disparate influences, so the group has kindly come up with a name for us: Britainicana, which blends ’90s alt-rock with British folk and indie sensibilities, tied together with a nostalgic American country glow. Cheers for doing my job for me.
