London four-piece Keo have released their debut album Put A Smile On For Me, a heavy yet sensitive dive into darkness that never forgets the choruses. The record has been hailed as a nu-grunge great, channelling the spirit of the 90s with plaid shirts, unwashed hair, and black moods that last for months.
A Return to Grunge's Dark Heart
For those who associate the 90s revival with glammy fashion parties and the Met Bar, Keo offer a different nostalgia: grunge. The band's heavy riffs, reluctant big choruses, and self-loathing lyrics evoke Kurt Cobain's era. On the track Loser, frontman Finn Keogh mutters, “I just a loser, I’m best alone,” a sentiment likely to resonate with thousands of teenagers in doomscrolling, no-future desolation.
Light and Shade in the Songwriting
The album's strength lies in its dynamics, bringing light and shade to the songs for compulsive brilliance. Opening tracks Be Happy and That's Me (with the line “That's me, I've become a fucking plague”) set a tortured, raging aesthetic, but also contain the super-sensitivity that underpinned Cobain's work. This leads the band into territory beyond the mosh pit.
Fly carries a gorgeous melody that shows off the honey within the gravel of Keogh's voice, while Black Dress could be off Pixies' Surfer Rosa with its sonic twisting around self-torture. Blue Song stretches from trauma ballad into existential epic.
From Intimate to Stadium-Sized
The real trick of the album is turning the deeply personal and intimate into something stadium-sized. Keo are heading for big things, and fans are encouraged to grow their hair, quit their jobs, and follow them all the way.
