Photo Credit: Alex Brown
Words: Olivia Macrae
★★★★☆
Rising UK rockers Keo have finally released their highly anticipated debut album ‘Put A Smile On For Me’ via Island Records. This is a quality 11 track record with proper guitars and genres of gritty grunge and alternative rock – an addicting listen and one of the hardest hitting albums of 2026.
Keo have been on my radar for quite some time now. I first heard about Keo in late 2024 when they were announced to support Nieve Ella’s Europe dates for her Watch It Ache And Bleed tour. Since then, they released their debut EP Siren in June 2025, sparked a huge live reputation from playing countless gigs across the UK & Europe, and today released their longly awaited debut album.
I would say that Keo are on the cusp of becoming one of the UK’s greatest guitar bands, but truthfully, they aren’t on the cusp. They are pretty much already there. And this debut album solidifies that. There has been a huge volume of hype for this release, and for good reason too.
Opening track ‘Be Happy’ instantly dives you head-first into a 30-second intro of blistering drums and heavy-laiden guitars, something that has formed the blueprint of Keo’s sound since their formation. It makes sense that ‘Be Happy’ is the first track; even the name itself alludes to the forceful joy ingrained in the album title. The lyrics “Can you teach me to be happy just like you?” introduces strong themes of self-comparison and mental turmoil. “Be happy if that stuff’s true” shows the mental back and forth in questioning whether you are truly happy, or if you are living in a lie.
Second track ‘That’s Me’ reinstates emotions of mental turmoil and blame, especially in the furious lyrics “All the feelings that I can’t explain / Well, I could pin ‘em all on you” where you can hear the words being said through gritted teeth amidst seething guitars. If you’re just about to listen to this album, this is the track I’d recommend you listen to first. Although it’s the shortest track, it is also an album staple and already popular amongst fans who heard it live in early shows in 2026.
Next is ‘Fly’ which I interpreted as a song about longing. ‘Fly’ is already a fan favourite as it has already been a live setlist track for years. This song is probably their strongest song lyrically, for example: “It takes a while to mend your old wing and just a second to learn how it breaks” which compares trust to a pair of wings. I find it interesting that the visuals for this song is a butterfly too, as butterflies’ fragile wings can tear at the smallest break but are also beautiful on the outside. ‘Fly’ is a brutal realisation that although trust can make a relationship, it can also break it.
‘Best I Can Do’ and ‘Bird On The Wire’ are both emotionally taxing listens. ‘Best I Can Do’ is a visceral response to a long, difficult end of a relationship, where the anger and frustration from previous tracks slowly unveils itself as hurt. The switchups in tone are mirrored in the ups and downs in the instrumentation too, often changing in pace before ending on a slow, gruelling note that transitions into ‘Bird On The Wire’. This song feels conclusive. Slowly intensifying drums and guitar reach a climax around two thirds in where the realisation hits – the endless, toxic back and forths are no longer working. The metaphor fits perfectly: just like a bird hurts itself on a live wire, the track’s self-deprecating realities show the pain of holding onto something that will inevitably hurt you.
‘Pistol’ is an incredible catchy track that starts to unpack new feelings of acceptance. I like the lyric: “Some things don’t come alive until they’re already dead” as it’s the first real moment in the album that moves on from dwelling in long indecision and instead admits growth can only arrive after long hardship is felt. ‘Loser’ continues this theme of slow, harsh realities with a piercingly hard-hitting instrumental towards the end.
Keo are mainly known as a live band, with more gigs under their belt than released songs. This meant several songs unfortunately didn’t make the final cut for Put A Smile On For Me. For example, unreleased tunes like ‘Kudos’ and ‘Young’ are still some of my favourite Keo songs to experience live, and I hope they still get played in future setlists here and there. However, ‘Black Dress’ is a [previously unreleased] song I’m extremely glad to have made the final cut. Its explosive guitars and audible pain in vocalist Finn Keogh’s voice is insane. I also noticed an interesting juxtaposition between the ‘Black Dress’ lyric: “You wait on me but I’m not coming home” and “I’ll come home again” lyric in the earlier track ‘Best I Can Do’. This circles back to the sheer mental back and forths and scathing turmoil exposed throughout this album.
‘Blue Song’ is the longest song on the album at 4 minutes and 43 seconds long. It increasingly builds up to a heartscorned expressive bridge before shifting to ‘Thorn’. ‘Thorn’ was previously listed on Keo’s EP ‘Siren’ but I completely understand why they put it on this album as well. It’s the perfect penultimate track and effortlessly engulfs their signature sound of 90s grunge rock and gritty guitars. The lyric: “Is there ever an end to this? Am I always condemned to it?” is worth noting as it puts even more strain and questioning on whether one is happy, or, as the album title suggests, should just put a smile on their face.
Closing track ‘Spent On You’ has also been a frequent live set appearance, and Keo have completely outdone themselves with this one. It’s a slower guitar-led track surrounding regret and confusion, but also a further step toward acceptance of the situation. The ending note to this album’s storyline doesn’t finish with clarity, but perhaps that’s the beauty of it. ‘Put A Smile On For Me’ is an unsettling signifier of the vulnerability that comes with endless cycles and chapters you don’t want to close. Each track is an emotional statepiece confessing uncomfortable tales of longing and despair which, truthfully, only get more heartbreaking the more you listen to it.
