Led by Billy Childish, The William Loveday Intention returns with its seventh full-length release in under two years. Childish (born Steven John Hamper, 1st December, 1959) is an English painter, author, poet, photographer, film maker, singer and guitarist.

Since the late 1970s, Childish has been prolific in creating music, writing and visual art. He has led and played in bands including the Pop Rivets, Thee Milkshakes, Thee Headcoats, and the Musicians of the British Empire, primarily working in the genres of garage rock, punk and surf and releasing more than 100 albums.

Cowboys are SQ (square for non-hepcats) features a rugged mix of Americana, blues, garage, and literate pop played with ramshackle flair.

Plus, Billy revisits Bob Dylan’s Like a Rolling Stone, which he covered on the first William Loveday Intention LP, The New and Improved Bob Dylan (2020) and Dave Tattersall of the Wave Pictures guests.

1. Cowboys Are SQ
2. Girl From 62
3. It Ain’t Mine
4. Pocahontas Was Her Name
5. Cave (blues)
6. The Seven Stages of Grief
7. Like a Rolling Stone
8. Too Many Things Mean Too Much to Me (blues)
9. Cowboys Are SQ (reprise)
10. You Make Me Die (country)

Opening on the earnest, dusty storytelling of the harmonica-embraced title track Cowboys Are SQ and the alt-country angst of Girl From 62, they back those up with the thunderously melodic It Ain’t Mine, and then comes the cinematic spaghetti western-imbibed Pocahontas Was Her Name.

Next up are two harmonic-driven tracks, the up-tempo foot-tapper Cave (blues) and then the lower-ebbed The Seven Stages of Grief, which are in turn followed by a simply magnificent rendition of Dylan’s Like a Rolling Stone, a twanging, slow-clapper of countrified rhythm and blues within Too Many Things Mean Too Much to Me (blues), the album rounding out on a vibrantly joyous Cowboys Are SQ (reprise), coming to a close on the harmonious duet You Make Me Die (country).

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