Each day of December this year, I’m highlighting one of my favourite albums of 2024. Counting down the list, we start with #31 on December 1st and go all the way down until we’ve reached #1 on December 31st. Today, #7 on my Album of the Year list: Friko – ‘Where we’ve been, Where we go from here’.

Having a career in the music industry means I’m spending a big deal of my work week watching all sorts of music videos. Ranging from classics to completely unknown artists: it’s incredibly varied and I absolutely love that part of my job. However, I inevitably stumble upon some rubbish too and I would probably go as far as saying that the majority of the videos I watch are pretty poor. To give a bit of a positive twist to it: a perk of watching many awful pieces of content is that you progressively get better in recognising true talent and after doing this job for many years now, I think it’s safe to say I have gotten quite the hang of that. As soon as I got exposed to this song (and its accompanying music video) called ‘Crashing Through’ by a completely unknown band called Friko somewhere late 2023, I instantly knew this was something to keep my eye out for.

Between the many releases I listen to on a yearly basis are a few albums that stand out as having the potential of becoming a classic of some kind. Most of these albums take a few listens to figure that out but some take less than even a single full play to realise something special is about to happen. This last scenario unfolded itself right before my eyes and ears while listening to Chicago-based duo Friko and their debut album ‘Where we’ve been, Where we go from here’. Aforementioned single ‘Crashing Through’ came, well, crashing in as being a phenomenal indie rock find, impressing me with its nostalgic DIY-sound and ditto production, but turns pale in comparison to the other songs on this album. 

What this band has in store for us is just stunning and it is downright astonishing what singer/guitarist Niko Kapetan and drummer Bailey Minzenberger have managed to deliver here. To be fair, it’s difficult to capture Friko’s sound in words. This album is as audacious as an early Radiohead or Arcade Fire release: it’s like a 25-year-old Thom Yorke, 2004-Arcade Fire, and – why not – a bit of Beck sat down together and wrote an album. It’s daring, refreshing, yet nostalgic. It’s full of beautiful melodies but also contains screeching riffs and slacker rock. The heart-wrenching ‘Until I’m With You Again’ has the rare ability to instantly stop me in my tracks and bring tears into my eyes while next song ‘Get Numb To It!’ could just as well go out for a celebratory rock piece. Albeit a very bleak one. Another beautiful ballad in ‘For Ella’ gets followed-up by the grungy ‘Chemical’, and the list goes on. All-encompassing album opener ‘Where We’ve Been’ is the elemental song on this album, highlighting some of Kapetan and Minzenberger’s most impressive talents. Without a doubt, ‘Where we’ve been, Where we go from here’ is amongst the top tier debut albums of 2024. It’s a truly special album and if this year were to deliver a classic, this album would be the one.