Chicago indie rock band Friko embody the true meaning of the genre through nine tracks of unapologetic melodies and a journey toward finding what it’s all worth on their sophomore album, ‘Something Worth Waiting For.’

‘Something Worth Waiting For’ – Friko

Chicago-born quartet Friko made waves with their 2024 debut album Where We’ve Been, Where We Go From Here, praised for exemplifying all the right components of classic midwest indie rock:

Edgy guitar riffs, raw vocals, and angst that’s only born through suburban longing.

Now, on their sophomore album Something Worth Waiting For, Friko maintain their rock identity but level up, transporting listeners back to the sounds of real indie rock by cleaning up their sound to the beat of a distant memory.

The album, released April 24 via ATO Records, opens with “Guess,” setting the scene of a harsh winter merging into spring. “Guess” sounds like eavesdropping on a studio session, an intimate moment during a raging storm, which it might as well have been as the whole song was completed in just one take. Lead vocalist Niko Kapetan’s emotions take center stage, initially accompanied by nothing but an electric guitar and his own shaky voice, rushing to get his words out as the instruments blare louder. And this sentiment lingers on tracks like “Still Around,” “Choo Choo,” and “Hot Air Balloon,” all individual pieces shared by the components of a true indie-rock song. There are no secrets with these electrifying, exposed songs, no hidden motive or over-the-top compositions, just a simplicity of the build-up to an epic bridge combined with lyrics that describe profound feelings in the simplest terms.

On “Hot Air Balloon,” Kapetan comments on the rudiments of regular life, the same creative professions with the same basic outcomes, and fantasizes about leaving it all, soaring high into the sky on a hot air balloon where there’s nothing but his thoughts and a new perspective. “And there’s sorrow and strife / And days slept away to nights / But I don’t want to see it / I don’t want to be it.” “Still Around” captures what early The Strokes albums could: A tenderness despite the heavy drums from Bailey Minzenberger and the raging guitar riffs from Korgan Robb. “It only starts to come when you need it most” the track teaches, attempting to reconcile with the bitter truth of the uncontrollable nature of life and a need to accept that and move on.

Still, Friko add their own spin to a classic format with theatrical melodies wrapped in a warm embrace.

“Certainty,” which sits as the halfway point of the album, marks the turning point of Something Worth Waiting For. Its piano ballad opening sounds like an old Hollywood film score, which only intensifies as a violin rips through the verses, magnifying the piece so it echoes through the brain. Kapetan’s voice rises and rises until he’s pleading, begging for the listener to understand the fickle nature of time and introducing the key message that there is always something worth waiting for. “Yes, I’m certain there’s something, I’m certain there’s more / I’m certain there’s somebody right through that door / I’m sure of it,” he asserts, making it impossible not to feel the same. “Certainty” marks the end of a harsh winter and the beginning of a biting spring, one that may not initially be 60 degrees and sunny, but has the innate potential to soon reach that level of bliss. “Wasn’t it winter three months ago, now?” Kapetan asks as the band look around themselves and realize the best could still be coming.

“Alice” and “Seven Degrees,” the former toward the opening of the album and the latter as we near the end, bookmark the range Friko have. It’s not always tried and true indie rock; songs could also be softer, more delicate, with a slight shift in tempo and a backline Beach Boys-like choir. “Alice” stems from the blue-dress-wearing lead who falls into Wonderland, the song warning her of the passing of time and the imperfection of life. It’s watching waves crash on the sand during sunset or seeing a childhood best friend right before moving away, all displayed through a synth-ed out piece accompanied by David Fuller’s catchy bass beat. “Alice did ya know? That rabbit is a pawn, and we are only pieces,” Kapetan explains.

“Seven Degrees” stems from the saying that everyone is connected through six people, which Kapetan misunderstood to be seven. Regardless, the track is less about the way people are all connected, and instead, a hopeful remark that this seventh person could be the final piece to living a full life. “I have searched, I have crawled / I have drank at every bar / Still, I sit and weep,” Kapetan confesses while on his journey to finding this final addition, a person that could provide meaning to a complex world or just someone to sit by him as life unfolds. As the song reaches its climactic end, the roaring electric strums and increasingly escalating drums leave the listener believing that they’ve met our fantasy will-they-won’t-they character, and now all seven people connect Friko to the world. “Just one more for you and me / We’re souls in a line / Waiting to meet, waiting for that summer breeze / To throw us through each other’s arms / We’re severed souls with seven more.”

On Something Worth Waiting For, Friko remind audiences what indie rock is supposed to sound like.

Indie rock music is everywhere nowadays – or at least, what bands think the category sounds like. But in the emergence of ensembles busting out the same-sounding tracks with bland commentary lyrics and little musical variety, the true meaning of the genre is lost in the fray.

Friko’s music exemplifies what that energy means. On the final song on the album “Dear Bicycle,” the quartet use a bicycle, the staple means of transportation for suburban children hell-bent on escaping their town, as a metaphor for leaving the innocence of childhood. It’s a track that takes us back to the beginning and reinforces the band’s central message on the album: That there is something worth waiting for, and to quit before reaching it is to live a life unfulfilled.

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 © Adam Powell

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