Friko
Something Worth Waiting For
ATO
Apr 24, 2026 Issue #75 - The ’90s Issue Part 2 Featuring Pulp and Suede
Just as febrile as their first (2024’s Where We’ve Been, Where We Go from Here), if not more so, the duo of Niko Kapetan and Bailey Minzenberger return with a set of songs as equally heartfelt as they are bashed out. The band has also been fleshed out to four members, now including Korgan Robb (guitar) and David Fuller (bass). And, no stranger to emotive rock, producer John Congleton (Mothers, Manchester Orchestra) has been brought on to produce. Congleton has Friko going for the jugular. Recording Kapetan literally gasping for breath on all out yearners like “Certainty” and the penultimate title song.
The album’s cover art hearkens to the industrial revolution and the LP is graced with three songs that single out early era modes of transportation. Not surprisingly, “Choo Choo” is the most frenetic, “Hot Air Balloon” the most graceful, but closing track, “Dear Bicycle,” is the album’s most stunning work. Driven tenderly by piano as it starts, the song climaxes and fades over its six-minute course. Clearly an ode to childhood, and though descriptive of its subject, the bicycle in question also feels like a proxy to a person and place long gone.
“Seven Degrees” is another all out charmer. Rooted squarely in the glam scene’s heyday, the briskly strummed acoustic chords and count along lyrics make for an easy to love first single. Many of these songs have been previewed in the band’s live sets and will be gobbled up by their growing fanbase. It’s hard to replicate the joy of discovery that was had with Friko’s debut, but rounding out the band and taking things up a notch make perfect sense. Not leaving their heart behind in the process, makes Something Worth Waiting For exactly that. (www.whoisfriko.com)
Author rating: 8/10
Average reader rating: 9/10
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