Friko - Something Worth Waiting For

That this second record from Chicagoans Friko is titled ‘Something Worth Waiting For’ feels somewhat of a misnomer, given it’s been a very standard two years since their debut full-length, 2024’s ‘Where we’ve been, Where we go from here’. Less standard, though, is how it’s a record that leaves the kind of impression usually associated with acts with far lengthier histories; second records are usually places where acts attempt to showcase their breadth, to be seen to expand on or rebel against their past selves, not double-down with quite this much confidence and depth. The jewel in Friko’s crown is Niko Capetan’s vocal, and its ability to ooze whichever emotions he’s opting for with such strength and ease. Case in point, on closer ‘Dear Bicycle’, his delivery - “I won’t lock you up this time around” - is genuinely affecting, even if seemingly singing to a static collection of metal and plastic. There’s a warmth to ‘Certainty’, while he increases intensity through the song - a feat all but completed on the title track, by which point he’s full-on screaming as the track crashes in after a relatively stripped-back start.

Yes, there’s a passing resemblance to that of Conor Oberst, and perhaps, at points, Isaac Brock of Modest Mouse: this is a feature, not a bug on a record that’s so classic indie rock it’d be unsurprising to discover it alongside the aforementioned acts’ releases on a long-lost turn of the millennium mix CD. It’s musically smart too, the chug-chug percussion of ‘Choo Choo’ met with a frenetic guitar strum that echoes the clatter of a train on its tracks. And then there’s the deliciously warm hug that is ‘Seven Degrees’, where a Beatles-y turn meets the earworm chorus to crescend towards a wholly euphoric key change, all while remaining fully in keeping with the emotional tug that defines the record. So while ‘worth waiting for’ is, yes, somewhat of an exaggeration, there’s inarguably a ‘something’ here.