Eagerly-awaited debut album from London-based 7-piece collective, Keg.  Prepare to glimpse inside a confused man’s brain.

Release Date:  14^th March 2025

Label: Alcopop! Records

Formats: CD / Vinyl / Digital

A FRANTIC, CHAOTIC ENERGY

7-piece London-based collective Keg describe their music as: “…a frantic, chaotic energy with barbed guitars, wonky synth lines, peppered with trombone providing a glimpse into a confused man’s brain.”  I’ve tried to come with my own words but that’s such a complete description of the fare on offer on Fun’s Over, the band’s long-awaited debut album, that I’ll stick with it.  After all, Keg knew what they were creating when they set out the lyrics and tunes for these songs and it’ll take the rest of us quite a few repeated plays before we’re fully up to speed.  But – it’ll be worth the effort!

The band members that became Keg – Frank Lindsay (guitar & frontman), Will Wiffen (keyboards), Jules Gibbons (guitar), Joel Whittaker (bass), Charlie Keen (trombone), Jonny Pyke (drums) and Albert Haddenham (lyrics) – have been making music in one form or another since around 2009.  Friends from their schooldays, Albert, Will and Joel first got together in their hometown of Bridlington to “…play Specials covers to angry bald men” [there’s always a market for that…] and that embryo morphed into Keg when it encountered the remaining members in Brighton in 2020.

A SINGULAR ALBUM

Keg’s 2021 debut EP, Assembly, attracted a good deal of praise, with NME calling the set: “…a glorious success, a torrent of animated, angular frenzy – a real juggernaut of an opening statement.”  That EP helped cement the band’s reputation as a ‘party’ act and that reputation was further consolidated by their 2022 follow-up EP, Girders.  And now, at last, the debut full-length offering is with us.

Fun’s Over is a singular album, indeed.  The album’s title is: “…a tongue-in-cheek reference to Keg’s growing reputation as a band for the good ol’ silly times, due to their irreverent nature and light-hearted approach to an increasingly serious scene.”  But, as it infers, Fun’s Over also offers a glimpse of the other side of the coin, positing a fuller view of the band’s vulnerability. 

The album’s ten songs range between the personal and the abstract and they inhabit various characters.  Keg cite Fugazi, Minutemen and Spoon as influences.  I’d also respectfully suggest they’ve spent quite a lot of time listening to Frank Zappa, as well as taking cues from the more nihilistic end of the punk spectrum and post-punk acts like Joy Division.  The aspect of Fun’s Over that will strike more immediately than any other is this: These boys can play.

DON’T TAKE THINGS TOO SERIOUSLY…

Fun’s Over isn’t an entirely easy listen.  Albert’s lyrics are thoroughly intriguing; you might not get the message after just a single listen but, trust me, once you’ve heard them, you’ll want to listen again – and again – until the penny drops. 

It’s perhaps best that you don’t take things too seriously or at face value, and that approach is helped by the three skits that are spread across the album, courtesy of band friends and burgeoning comedy stars, Florence Pick, Harrison Charles and Theo Mason.  Albert was the author of Father Charles – a delightful ‘posh’ monologue in which a country vicar praises the falsetto abilities of the bunch of renegades that he’s taken in – and Mr & Mrs Raleigh, an anecdote of the impact made by a skiffle band performing in a Norwich shopping centre.  Theo’s responsible for Bobby – the metaphoric tale of a cigarette that burns brightly before being trampled in the street.  You’ll laugh out loud – I guarantee!

THESE ARE NO ORDINARY LYRICS

But, back to the music, and the softly-crashing cymbals, melancholy trombone notes and gently-plucked guitar that gets Photo Day, the album’s opening track underway.  It’s a song that surges into a jazzy, funky, Zappa-esque piece and lyrics like: “I dress my best and Sunday does the rest; piss stains down my nice new winter vest” convey the immediate message: this is no ordinary album – and these are no ordinary lyrics.

The delightfully-titled I’d Fly Tip For You, one of two singles to have previewed the album, put me in mind of what the Bonzos might have sounded like if they’d made it into the 1980s.  Promises to fly-tip a mattress or a kagoul are followed by the narrator’s declaration of his love for Robert Wyatt.  Yes – it’s THAT kind of inspired surrealism!  And the tight, jazzy tune is a delicious bonus.

A scattered guitar theme alternates with trombone and keyboard licks for Strangers.  The lyrics – “I see President Lincoln in the phone directory; I see Marilyn Monroe in the fall catalogue” – are typically opaque.  Maybe that’s the reason why it’s such an exhilarating listen.  Swirling synth bursts into bloom as the band take off – all in roughly the same direction – for the excellent Plain Words.  Albert cleverly uses oblique terminology to bemoan the absence of plain speech in an intimate conversation, whilst the band blend punk and post-punk with a dash of Lennon-like anguish.

GRIEF AND ANGUISH – TO A FUNKY, POPPY ACCOMPANIMENT

Tight guitars, crisp drums and cascades of synth, trombone and keyboards set the scene for the dystopian St Michael, another of the ‘preview’ singles.  This time the lyrics consider the catastrophizing effect that grief can play on one’s mind, as they reference car accidents, mum’s cancer, primal rages and other “terrible things” that culminate in a “…taste of blood in my mouth.”

An insight to a divorcee’s descent into crisis provides the subject matter for Giving Up Fishing – the track that is, perhaps, my pick of the whole bunch on Fun’s Over.  The anguish and confusion is plain in lyrics like: “I’m giving up fishing, I’m buying a big car, I’m letching at women, I’m thinking I’m cured,” as a punchy bassline and Charlie’s mellow trombone fills provide the foundation for the song’s funky, poppy accompaniment.

DETERMINED TO MAKE SENSE OF IT ALL

Crazy, distorted vocals deliver more lyrics that invite a detailed scrutiny in the funk-metal Sate the Worm, before things assume a more laid-back mood for Skybather, a song that, perhaps more than any other, demonstrates how effectively jazz, heavy rock and Zappa-like intricacy can be blended together by musicians who know what they’re doing.  And, if Albert’s lyrics mean what I believe they mean, then I’m glad that I’m not alone in seeking solace in the bath whenever I need the time and space to think.

The cacophonous jazz-punk of Ferryman is almost overwhelming in its intensity – it’s a tune unlike any other that you’ll hear this year – before the essence of the entire album is distilled into a single track for album-closer Kayaking.  Joy Division dystopia, Zappa madness, smooth jazz, punky howls and folky contemplation all take a turn on an epic track.  And Albert leaves us with a final message to ponder over: “PTA meetings with Adam and Jane.  She has your eyes, but mine are lazy…”

As I’ve already suggested: Fun’s Over is a singular album.  Have a listen – you’ll be disorientated, you’ll be confused and you’ll be determined to make sense of it all.  So you’ll listen again.  And again.  And again.

Watch the official video to Sate The Worm, a track from the album, below:

Keg Online: Official Website / Facebook / Instagram / Bandcamp

Keep up with At The Barrier: Facebook / X (formerly Twitter) / Instagram / Spotify / YouTube