It seems everywhere you look, someone is making the argument that rock is dead or dying. Yet, a simple glance at recent top-grossing tours and festival headliners indicates this is anything but true. While rock is struggling to maintain relevance on the charts alongside Hip Hop and modern R&B, there’s still plenty of bands carrying the torch for the new generation. Firago falls into that category. Based in Chicago, their debut single “Vertigo” braids slinky guitars and walking basslines with prominent keyboards, seamlessly integrating their classic rock inclinations with more modern sounds and production. Shamelessly embracing guitar pyrotechnics of old, the long guitar solo evokes memories of Gilmour and Frusciante while demonstrating the guitar’s singular power to emote and captivate audiences since time immemorial. Lyrically, rock is often criticized as dumb and sex-obsessed, and while “Vertigo” is certainly fueled by passion and lust, Firago prove they are no strangers to the power of the thesaurus. Wordy, yet direct, Miles’ vocals evoke classic British snarl and attitude, while the falsetto harmonies further solidify the strong melodies. The video for “Vertigo” also pays homage to rock’s history, in particular the low-budget, humorous videos of the late 90’s and early 2000’s that clawed their way to the top of MTV’s TRL. The long, psychedelic rocker “Dogs” was released as a B-Side.