Written by Sean Crosby<\/p>\n
Occasionally when listening to an album I\u2019ve never heard from a band I haven\u2019t gotten around to yet, I\u2019ll push play and be instantly pulled into a completely unique world. Songs like The Strokes\u2019 \u201cIs This It\u201d, Arcade Fire\u2019s \u201cNeighborhood #1 (Tunnels)\u201d, or that goddamn guitar in the intro of American Football\u2019s \u201cNever Meant\u201d are so immediately engrossing they give you goosebumps on first listen. It\u2019s incredibly rare for a band to nail their sound so perfectly on the opening track of their debut album. So, when I felt those same goosebumps when I heard the gentle guitar and tender singing of Niko Kapetan in the opening notes of \u201cWhere we\u2019ve been\u201d, I knew I was in for something special. The song slowly builds from a quaint and folksy opening to a cathartic explosive rock ending where Kapetan goes from softly singing to desperately screaming the song\u2019s chorus about clinging on to those you love. It\u2019s one of the strongest intro tracks that I\u2019ve heard in a long time, and the best part of Friko\u2019s debut album <\/span>Where we\u2019ve been, Where we go from here <\/span><\/i>is that it only keeps getting better.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Friko manage to pack an incredible amount of variety into a compact 36-minute runtime. It\u2019s easy for any debut album, especially a debut from a small band, to be somewhat one-note. Friko flips this assumption on its head, and instead goes into a largely different direction with each track. The album transitions between exciting indie-rockers, somber piano ballads, and bittersweet string-led serenades effortlessly. No two songs on the album are too similar to each other, and the band consistently introduces interesting production choices to keep listeners invested. One of my favorite of these flairs comes during the bridge of \u201cChemical\u201d. After a short build, Kapetan\u2019s repeated yells of \u201cchemical!\u201d are so frequent that they begin to overlap each other, adding a sense of frantic inertia to the whole song. It might not seem important, but little touches like these add up very quickly to make the album an overall joy to listen to.<\/span><\/p>\n One of the album\u2019s absolute standouts is \u201cGet Numb To It!\u201d, a re-recorded version of the band\u2019s first ever single. This song is dripping with character, from the stripped-back acoustic opening that slowly builds into the fast-paced percussion of the verse to the group vocals of the chorus to the blown out guitars in the song\u2019s explosive conclusion. It ends with a lo-fi reprise of \u201cWhere we\u2019ve been\u201d, which ties the entire album together and perfectly sets up the closer \u201cCardinal\u201d, a quaint piano and string ballad that addresses the second half of the album\u2019s title: where we go from here. Whereas much of the album\u2019s lyrical themes focus on past loves and anxieties, \u201cCardinal\u201d is much more present, focusing instead on facing a difficult future.<\/span><\/p>\n Chicago indie rock duo Friko\u2019s debut album <\/span>Where we\u2019ve been, Where we go from here<\/span><\/i> is an impressive, expansive, and endearing effort that is emblematic of a band with an incredible amount of potential. Wherever they go from here, it\u2019s clear that Friko is a name to remember.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Best Tracks: \u201cWhere we\u2019ve been\u201d \/ \u201cCrashing Through\u201d \/ \u201cChemical\u201d \/ \u201cGet Numb to It!\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n You can find Friko on <\/span>Instagram<\/span><\/a><\/strong><\/span> and <\/span>Twitter<\/a><\/strong><\/span> and on all streaming services<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Written by Sean Crosby Occasionally when listening to an album I\u2019ve never heard from a band I haven\u2019t gotten around to yet, I\u2019ll push play and be instantly pulled into a completely unique world. Songs like The Strokes\u2019 \u201cIs This It\u201d, Arcade Fire\u2019s \u201cNeighborhood #1 (Tunnels)\u201d, or that goddamn guitar in the intro of American Football\u2019s \u201cNever Meant\u201d are so immediately engrossing they give you goosebumps on first listen. It\u2019s incredibly rare for a band to nail their sound so […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":80166,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15,4,3235],"tags":[8767],"class_list":["post-80164","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured-on-kjhk","category-music","category-music-reviews","tag-friko"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/kjhk.org\/web\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/FrikoCover.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kjhk.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80164","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kjhk.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kjhk.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kjhk.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kjhk.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=80164"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/kjhk.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80164\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":80176,"href":"https:\/\/kjhk.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80164\/revisions\/80176"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kjhk.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/80166"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kjhk.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=80164"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kjhk.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=80164"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kjhk.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=80164"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}