|| Where we've been, Where we go from here - Friko ||
Genres: Indie Rock, Chamber Pop, Noise Rock
Friko's fantastic debut album is a solidly composed and steadily enjoyable listen. The Chicago duo have proven themselves here, and will hopefully do so again in the future.
The album opens on its slow-burn title track 'Where We've Been', initially seeming like any other indie group with an acoustic guitar. In all honesty, I was dreading the listen of this album as I got through the first minute of this track due to its generic sound - they pulled the rug out from under me. At the halfway mark, their noise-rock prowess shows as the distorted guitars take over the song. It's one of the most exciting songs released this year on a second listen, anticipating that middle section and outro.
The albums most played song as of writing, 'Crimson To Chrome', is a pleasant indie song that doesn't have as much replay value as the number of streams would have you think. The third track, 'Crashing Through', is a much heavier song than most of what else is on this album. Of course, it's nothing too strong (this IS an indie album, after all), but it's still quite a bit. It's a very enjoyable change of pace from the ballad-y 'Crimson To Chrome'.
Quick to move on, Friko give us a melancholic piano track on 'For Ella', introducing an emotional string section. I can't help but feel a little bored here, unfortunately. The listener isn't given much substance, and without moving in much of an interesting direction, the track falls flat and ends up over-sentimental and mawkish.
Moving swiftly on to a personal favourite, 'Chemical' puts Friko back on the path of what they're best at: noisier rock songs full of distortion. I can't help but move around when I'm listening to this track, it's fast-paced, positive-sounding (I couldn't find the lyrics, but it sounds happy) and fun.
'Statues' (a song that I did find the lyrics for) is another very sentimental song, but this time they had the production to pull it off! Lyrics may not be a strong point for Friko, but with unique vocals great production, this can be let slide. As long as they don't try to dramatise things with a generic piano opening, like the next track, then it'll be okay.
'Until I'm With You Again' is another drag, dull production, boring lyrics and a xylophone outro? If a Friko song has anything that could be argued as a keyboard in it, it'll probably weigh down the rest of their album. It's a shame, really, because the fast-paced songs are fucking great. They should definitely stick to those in the future.
Thankfully they get faster again in 'Get Numb To It!', quickly resuming the great atmosphere that this album should be striving to hold through the whole thing. They recognise that this track sounds very similar to the first by reprising its chorus for the outro. This was a good decision.
Ending with another sentimental song 'Cardinal' which, too, is MILES BETTER than ANYTHING they made with their damn piano. This song even has a string section like 'For Ella', but sounds far less sickly because it's on a guitar. It's a fact of life that 9 times out of 10 emotional songs sound better on guitar, something these guys need to learn.
Friko's debut is inconsistent. It's really good when it's good, but boring when it's bad. Luckily, it's good for most of it's songs. I sort of wish they'd been more adventurous, they could've really benefitted from taking a few more risks. The production on this is fantastic, though. Like, seriously stunning. Easily this band's biggest strength.
