Friko - Something Worth Waiting For (Album Review)
Monday, 27 April 2026
Written by Jacob Brookman
The success of Geese’s ‘Getting Killed’ has shifted the parameters for DIY-leaning bands like Friko, demonstrating that scrappy ambition can scale into something genuinely distinctive and mainstream in 2026. But it cuts both ways: Geese’s sheer originality raises the bar, and on ‘Something Worth Waiting For’, Friko occasionally find themselves worn down by that standard.
That said, this is a confident, often thrilling, second record. Where their debut felt like a band discovering its voice in real time, this follow up stretches outward, embracing bigger arrangements and sharper dynamics without entirely sacrificing that nervy, homespun core. The result feels caught between grungy intimacy and widescreen indie theatrics — sometimes uneasily, but more often to its benefit.
Take Seven Degrees, where a dense, fizzing wall of guitars threatens to overwhelm Niko Kapetan’s fragile vocal. He leans into it, voice cracking and straining, turning the song into something raw and oddly moving rather than merely bombastic. It’s a high-wire act that mostly pays off.
Hot Air Balloon, meanwhile, is more playful on the surface but carries a bratty undercurrent of existential fatigue, its repeated refusals (“I don’t want…”) landing with increasing desperation as the track spirals. It recalls ‘Hail to the Thief’-era Radiohead in a haunting indie chorus that spirals catchily.
Still Around is perhaps the closest the album gets to a breakout moment — all adrenaline and immediacy, with a chorus that practically begs for a sweaty live setting — but even here it stops just short of true lift-off. That’s the recurring theme: for all the versatility in songwriting and textures, there aren’t really any undeniable, culture-cutting hits on offer here.
But that’s a very high bar to clear. The musicianship remains undeniable, and the emotional throughline — a band grappling with growth, expectation and identity — gives the record real weight and texture. It lands as a terrific second turn from a band clearly on the rise, even if the new landscape shaped by Geese means that what once felt fresh now invites tougher, occasionally unflattering comparisons, raising the stakes as much as it opens the door.
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