Winger is a melodic Hard Rock band, well, was a Melodic Hard Rock band
since they haven't made any new albums nor do they intend to, well, as long
as I know of course. Basically the band made 3 albums. The first one was quite
nice, though nothing thrilling either, a typically good Hard Rock release in
the veins of the period (end of the 80's). Their second album (In The Heart
Of The Young), was easily their best work, with incredible killer songs,
catchy choruses, nice guitars melodies and solos (quite technical for the period)
and excellent vocal performance from the lead man of the band : Kip Winger.
Definitely an album that will appear one day or another on our classic section
(you've been warned :)). The third album is already in the section, but although
a nice release, it doesn't compete with their second and best album.
So basically the best of Winger is the best of these 3 albums, with
2 new songs, an outake and a newly recorded song, both from the Pull
(3rd album) period. The new recorded song starts the album and is called On
The Inside. Pretty good song, nice chorus and worthy to have for all die-hard
fans of the band. The selection of songs is okay, the best songs like Blind
Revolution Mad, Spell I'm Under, Can't Get Enuff, Easy Come Easy Go, Rainbow
In The Rose, Miles Away,... are in, but somehow a few boring tracks found
their way too, like Down Incognito or Junkyard Dog, that I really
have problem to stomach. The overall best of is easily digested if you like
this kind of music. The outake song Hell To Pay is more square and less
melodic that what Winger usually delivers, but still is a good Hard Rock
song.
In the end, although I love Winger very much, it sounds to me more like
a commercial move than anything else, but I might be wrong and Kip might just
wanted to say hello to his fans one more time, I dunno. If you like Winger
or similar bands of that period like White Lion or Honeymoon Suite,
then you can check out that fairly good best of. Cause, if you don't own the
Winger CD collection, that one alone can really be worth having in your
Hard Rock collection, otherwise die-hard fans will probably do the same than
I did when I saw the CD : jump at it :).