Review - Winger- Better Days Comin' (Frontiers Records)

  

With this band it was always about the music. I didn't get overexposed because MTV Europe hardly ever played them. Mainstream they were anything but. I loved the songs and the playing. Everything that mattered really, even to the band. All the rest was fluff and that's what killed them. Every album they've done has been solid and this is no exception.

  It's been five years since Karma that was seen as a welcome return to a more rocking style after Winger 4. Many fans felt the former was more a Reb Beach album and the latter a Kip album. Yet Karma had progressive elements throughout too with the rockers up front. This one is probably the bands most experimental album. Even the straight up rockers like the opening track Midnight Driver Of A Love Machine or Queen Babylon aren't immediate. The title track sounds like a funky 70's thing and has nothing like it in the bands back catalogue.

   The best track is Tin Soldier. Expertly crafted with great vocals from Kip and a fantastic solo from Reb Beach. If I had any complaint and its a small one is the lack of an up tempo track towards the end. So Long China moves along nicely and Storm In Me has a nice heavy riff that suffers somewhat with the distorted vocals in the chorus. Ever Wonder and Be Who You Are Now are very Kip solo sounding. Again solid tracks but a little keyboard heavy. Closer Out Of This World is a great song in the vein of Headed For A Heartbreak or Witness. Reb lets to really rip here.

   I can't stop playing this and these guys are one of my favorite bands from the eighties. It's a definite grower. The band sounds great and Kip's voice is still fantastic which can't be said of some other singers in their 50's. They really are a misunderstood band and Bret Michaels this most definitely isn't. Buy the deluxe version for the extra track and a very decent half-hour or so making of documentary.


Richie.