Keg release their debut album ‘Fun’s Over’ via Alcopop! Records on 14 March, 2025. Known for their infectious live performances, this record finds the seven-piece showcasing a more vulnerable, human side amidst the chaos of synths, trombone and barbed guitars…
Album opener ‘Photo Day’ has a long, mathy, post-rock-inspired build up that makes for a glorious noise. Stop start and experimental, it finds the band talking about having ‘piss stains cover my nice new winter vest’ over a soundtrack akin to Youthmovies covering Getdown Services. ‘Father Charles’ is the first of three comedy skit interludes, this one focusing on a class war as ‘Charles’ pats himself on the back for giving a homeless person some lucozade and a Pepperani.
‘I’m in love with Robert Wyatt’ is the Art Brut-esque calling card on ‘I’d Fly Tip for You’ while the trombone blasts throughout strangers, a song that has a powerful and defiant change of ‘I’m winning now’ being delivered towards the end. ‘Plain Words’ finds the band pondering on how ‘it was supposed to be funny’ with surprising poignancy, before taking a left turn into a prog-infused melting pot. There’s a touch of label mates Johnny Foreigner in the fractured and frenetic sound of ‘St Michael’ – with some dark humor to boot: ‘I can taste blood in my mouth’.
‘Mr and Mrs Raleigh’ is back to the spoken-word comedy, this time set in a shopping center in the middle of Norwich with recollections of enjoying a ‘boogie woogie’ and getting close to people that they maybe shouldn’t. ‘Giving Up Fishing’ has more of an art rock feel – with jazz infusions – as Keg talk about driving a Skoda, listening to David Gray and the mundanities of a musician’s regular life.
‘Skybather’ was one of the lead singles and it remains a fresh and twisted take on contemporary pop while ‘Bobby’, the finale of the comedy interludes focuses on mortality with some candour: ‘Just like a cigarette, we burn brightly, only to be trampled into the street’. The closing ‘Kayaking’ is a chaotic yet melodic six and half minutes which somehow crams in everything from PTA meetings to a climax that feels like you’ve landed on another planet…
‘Fun’s Over’? With Keg, we’re only just getting started…
