FRIKO Something Worth Waiting For (ATO) — The Chicago band Friko got off to a promising start with their 2024 debut album, Where We’ve Been, Where We Go from Here. For the follow-up, there’s no denying that they’ve leveled up. Guitarist Korgan Robb and bassist David Fuller have joined on bring Friko up to a four-piece outfit, and they’ve enlisted high-profile producer John Congelton to help make the most of their studio time. The result has more gems than a productive diamond mine. Something Worth Waiting For is a booming, beaming collection of finely crafted indie rock songs. There’s a preoccupation with modes of transport here; in addition to “Choo Choo,” which has layered guitars that move like a rushing train, “Hot Air Balloon” and “Dear Bicycle” are found on the track list. Mostly, though, this sophomore effort finds the band simply displaying a mastery of their scruffy craft, from loose, joyful songwriting to crisp, assertive playing. They still sometimes sound like a band that was reared on the Saddle Creek catalog — “Certainty” has the high drama of one of Conor Oberst’s ballads of gasping intensity — but they also made their own way, as with the punchy single “Still Around.” Promise fulfilled. Try these worthy tracks: “Guess,” “Alice,” “Seven Degrees,” and the title cut.

JULIA CUMMING Julia (Partisan) — It was just last year that Sunflower Bean released their fourth LP, Mortal Primetime. Now, the band’s frontwoman is out with her debut full-length solo release. Even more surprising given the quick turnaround: Julia is no dashed-off affair. Working with producer Chris Coady, Cumming delivers an album that is slick and full. Opener “My Life” sets the standard with its sweeping, orchestral pop, and Cumming continues along by exploring all ways she can put her expressive, emotional lyrics into music that soars with theatricality. If the album can occasionally tip over into overly buffed pop, there are also plenty of instances when Cumming yanks her material back down to the terra firma. “Emotional Labor” is a piano ballad that casts all the way back to Laura Nyro, and “Ruled by Fear” calls to mind Haim when they’re their nineteen-seventies zone. If nothing else, Julia passes the test of sounding like it needed to be a project completed apart from Cumming’s main gig. She has signed her name to a unique creation. Turn these pretty petals towards your ears: “Please Let Remember This,” “I Dream of a Fire That Stays Burning When Nobody Tends It,” and “Sounds of a Secret.”