Grit, vulnerability and feedback: Keo’s ‘Put A Smile On For Me’ is the debut album of the year

Since releasing their debut EP, Siren, in June 2025, Keo, the four-piece alternative rock band from London, have had the UK music scene on a string. Fronted by brothers Finn and Conor Keogh, along with lead guitarist Jimmy Lanwern and drummer Oli Spackman, the band have been the name on every summer festival lineup, most notably their Reading Festival main stage slot, which stands in stark contrast to 2025, when they played the BBC Music Introducing stage to a crowd a fraction of the size.

Building directly on the foundation of Siren, Put A Smile On For Me feels like its fully grown successor while still maintaining the same recipe of bleeding drum mics, screaming guitars and a production quality which has become so unique to Keo’s studio sound, but with an added layer of maturity. As frontman Finn Keogh states on the vinyl sleeve, “We turned away from the safety net of big-name producers and decided to self-produce the record”, something which makes this album so enticing. 

The opening track, ‘Be Happy’ was one of the many songs from the album to debut live. Despite this, the recorded version, which took a week to record, captures that exact same youthful energy that drives flocks of people to all of their live shows. Spackman’s isolated opening drum riff immediately demonstrates the band’s ‘90s grunge influences, mirroring the opening of Nirvana’s ‘Scentless Apprentice’. Through the chorus of the song, Keogh explores struggles with happiness and pleads: “I wanna be happy, just like you. Be happy, if that stuff’s true”. 

This desperate plea for happiness feels less like a fictional narrative and more like a vulnerable, personal confessional

Keogh’s self-reflexive songwriting is a marker of his maturity as a writer. He stated in an interview with KINK that he “convinced himself that nobody would ever hear the songs.” Consequently, this desperate plea for happiness feels less like a fictional narrative and more like a vulnerable, personal confessional. Eventually it spirals; the song collapses under a wall of feedback and frantic drumming as Finn repeatedly screams “nevermind”, the final surrender to his struggles. 

The album brings a familiar face with the fan-favourite track, ‘Thorn’, a song that originally featured on their debut EP but has been reworked for the record. It is an unconventional choice to give a previously released track a spot over entirely unheard material, but one that fits seamlessly with the record. The new rendition shows how the band has evolved since the EP; it feels much more polished and emotive. Originally titled ‘Hate’, the song explores the emotional aftermath of a breakup, a theme which is made much more visceral through the grittier guitar tone (a byproduct of Finn’s signature Fender Telecaster and Hot Rod Deluxe combination) along with an increased tempo. 

The album’s standout moment arrives with ‘That’s Me’, the lead single that began the build-up to the record’s release. It’s a perfect introductory track to Keo’s energy and overall sound and is already rivalling their breakthrough track, ‘I Lied, Amber’. Once again, Keogh refuses to hide behind a veneer of fiction and invites us into his thoughts of self-loathing through the lines: “That’s me, sucking the life from her, that’s me, I’ve become a fucking plague”.

Finn abandons his previous vocal restraint, shattering the delicate nature of the first half

Perhaps the most exploratory song on the record, ‘Blue Song’ unfolds almost as two separate tracks. The first half consists of a slow, acoustic-driven ballad which opens with Keogh’s raw vocals bleeding into the drum mics. As the section reaches its crescendo, the acoustic guitar fades out and distorted guitar steps in to fill its place. The second half takes a much darker turn with Lanwern’s lead guitar screeching throughout. Keogh abandons his previous vocal restraint, shattering the delicate nature of the first half. This tonal imbalance is reminiscent of Jeff Buckley’s ‘Mojo Pin’, in which a similar, false sense of security is created by the song’s opening. 

Put A Smile On For Me is far more than just an incredible debut album. It’s a demonstration of Keo’s rare versatility with the balancing of chaotic grunge guitar alongside vulnerable confessions. With their upcoming headline show at the Brixton Academy, a stacked autumn tour and an endless supply of unreleased tracks, one thing is abundantly clear: Keo aren’t just riding a wave of summer hype; they have marked themselves as the UK’s next defining rock band. 

Recommended Listening: ‘That’s Me’, ‘Be Happy’

★★★★

Listen to Put A Smile On For Me here: