When Friko delivered their debut album Where we’ve been, Where we go from here, the Chicago-based band introduced a galvanizing new voice into the indie-rock canon. Both uncompromising in spirit and thrilling in impact, the 2024 LP landed on best-of-the-year lists from the likes of Pitchfork, the cover of NME, and led to glowing acclaim from Rolling Stone, Paste, NPR Music, and SPIN (who noted that the album “places them in a lineage of great indie- and alt-rock acts…bands with prominent weird streaks, arena-sized potential, and the chops to build a bridge between the two”). In the making of their sophomore full-length, vocalist/guitarist Niko Kapetan, drummer Bailey Minzenberger, guitarist Korgan Robb, and bassist David Fuller gained a powerful new clarity on their purpose and vision while embracing an even bolder sense of abandon, exploring everything from noise-rock to avant-garde classical to ’70s-era symphonic balladry. Equal parts sonically extravagant and emotionally searing, Something Worth Waiting For ultimately locates a wildly elusive balance between the wide-eyed idealism of youth and the self-possessed grit of lived experience.

Carousel, Mark Scott’s fifth album as villagerrr, glides from slowcore to shoegaze, from log-cabin folk to the accelerated bliss of rock tailor-made for an empty freeway. The boldest and most delicate album to date from the Ohio songwriter, Carousel is a sweeping exploration of what it means to try to make sincere art in a hyperexposed and constricting age, where Scott’s big, midwestern songs smolder with a desire to find enduring meaning in an era rife with commodification. Piecing the music together over the course of two years, Scott let the collaborative spirit of his previous record flourish. 2024’s Tear Your Heart Out, sparked tours with Real Estate, Greg Freeman and Momma, a new label deal with Winspear and recent deluxe reissue, bringing in widening circles of listeners and collaborators. Carousel features a melange of Scott’s rising folk and indie rock peers, like Boone Patrello of Teethe, h. pruz and Carolina Chauffe of Hemlock, and was mixed by Scott after listening back to rough drafts on long drives or on runs. With Scott’s keen ear for both particulate detail and expansive landscape, listening to villagerrr can feel like peering into prairie grass to see what's crawling there, then standing up suddenly to witness the splendor of an oncoming storm. Carousel harbors a lot of healthy skepticism about the world we're in now, but it also holds up proof that just laying down your guard and reaching out to other people can spark creatively bountiful relationships–and set the foundation for a life that's deeply, meaningfully livable.