Manchester indie rock band Westside Cowboy wrestle with self-control, perception, and the limits we learn to live within on “Pin Up Boys,” a restless track that grows heavier and more forceful as it unfolds.

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Stream: “Pin Up Boys” – Westside Cowboy

The first thing that stays with you about Westside Cowboy’s “Pin Up Boys” is its restless pulse.

The guitars twist around Paddy Murphy’s driving drums, and the melody sticks after one listen. Beneath that catchiness, though, Reuben Haycocks is grappling with the distance between who we are and the version of ourselves that other people see, as well as with restraint.

That tension suits Westside Cowboy, whose beginnings were far more modest than the force of the song suggests. Haycocks, Murphy, bassist and cellist Aoife Anson O’Connell, and guitarist James “Jimmy” Bradbury met while studying at university in Manchester and began playing together in Murphy’s bedroom. Initially, they worked through Hank Williams and Bob Dylan covers. Their music eventually pulled those influences into British indie rock, a combination the band have jokingly called “Britainicana.”

“Pin Up Boys” came from that same DIY spirit. Featured on the band’s recently released debut album It Goes On (out now via Island Records), it was written roughly a year and a half before it was recorded; it began with an acoustic guitar, a drum-machine sample pad, and screwdrivers being used as drumsticks. Playing it live changed the song. Haycocks says it became “heavier and more aggro” every time they played it, and when the band finally recorded it with producer Loren Humphrey, they chose to preserve the version they had developed onstage.

The opening still holds onto some of its original sparseness. Haycocks sings, “If nothing else, at least I looked alive,” a line carrying irony and resignation at once. Simply appearing present sounds like a small victory. “I was standing to attention by the time that you arrived” makes that appearance feel deliberate, as though he has prepared himself for someone else’s gaze before they have even entered the room.

Then comes, “If there is one thing for certain that a man like me can’t see / It’s the face that I was pulling when you looked right through me.” There is something painfully familiar about not knowing what your face did at the exact moment somebody made you feel invisible. You remember their expression and what it did to you, but your own face becomes the missing piece. Haycocks captures that disconnect between the person we believe we are presenting and whatever somebody else has decided to see.

As the song progresses, the arrangement begins pushing harder. Murphy keeps it moving while the guitars grow rougher and more insistent, carrying traces of all those performances that evolved from the original bedroom version.

The chorus has all four band members’ voices interlocking, with Aoife Anson O’Connell singing alongside Haycocks as the song swells toward its crescendo. The collaboration gives the chorus another dimension, drawing more attention to the lyrics. “Pull me aside, Are you tryna kill me boy?” sounds like someone nearing the end of their restraint. Then, “You think I’m like / One of your pin up boys?” is a lyric that pushes directly against being reduced to an image. A pin-up exists to be looked at and idealized, so after a verse spent discussing how someone else sees him, the phrase feels especially pointed.

The repeated “You learn your limits / And you stay that way” could be advice or a warning.

Westside Cowboy have described the song as being about self-control, and those lyrics appear influenced by the idea that broken relationships provide stepping stones for learning one’s boundaries and permanently alter one’s outlook on life, to the point where those limits become ingrained forever. Learning your limits is a tough lesson, but doing so protects you.

My only criticism is that it left me wanting another verse. There is enough going on here to justify one. Still, the repetition works in the song’s favor, as it allows those few lines to become more insistent and stronger every time they come back around.

For a song concerned with self-control, “Pin Up Boys” sounds ready to break loose. What began with an acoustic guitar and screwdrivers in a Manchester bedroom has become something catchy, raw, and difficult to shake.

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Stream: “Pin Up Boys” – Westside Cowboy

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 © Clémentine Schneidermann

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