1214. Winger / Winger. 1988. 3/5

Hard work and persistence don’t always combine to get the rewards you deserve, and especially in the music industry. How many musicians and bands have fought their way to the brink of a breakthrough, only to have their dreams shattered at the final off ramp? While some people are gifted a chance with little behind them, most artists find it takes years of scrapping to get the chance to make the breakthrough they deserve.
Enter the scene Kip Winger and Reb Beach. Both started playing in bands – separately – in high school, and eventually met up as they were recording material for separate projects under the production of Beau Hill. They even began recording demos together at that time, Kip as bass guitarist and lead vocals and Reb as lead and rhythm guitarist and backing vocals. Then Kip’s big break came, climbing on board with Alice Cooper to record and tour on the albums “Constrictor” and “Raise Your Fist and Yell”, the albums that helped resurrect Alice’s career. It was following these two albums and tours that Kip decided he wanted to form his own band and so moved on from the Alice Cooper juggernaut. He reconnected with Reb, and even snared Paul Taylor, who had been touring with Alice Cooper as keyboardist, to also join the new band. With Rod Morgenstein joining on drums, the quartet was complete.
Initially the band wanted to call themselves Sahara, and even had that named on the front cover of their debut album. However, as the name was already take by another band, they had to choose another name. Eventually, it was Alice Cooper himself who suggested that they should call themselves Winger, which is eventually what they did.

Listening to this album in 2023 is a lot different from picking it up in 1988 and putting it on for the first time. The album had four singles released from it, and all of them are stereotypical of the era of hair metal that this is born from. But the quality of it is what makes it stand apart from some of the pretenders of the era. Reb Beach on guitar is superb. He holds the standard riffs through the bass of the songs, but when given the chance to preach his solos they are fantastic and wholly enjoyable. Kip Winger is terrific on bass and as lead singer throughout gives a performance that doesn’t try to overstate his presence, nor go over the top in reaching for heights he doesn’t have or need to. Morgenstein’s drums hold that steady beat throughout while Taylor’s keyboards also aren’t domineering throughout the songs which gives the album a unique presence. All four are capable vocalists as well which makes for a great chorused sound on all the songs.
The first side of the album is dominated by the main singles releases, and thus the lyrical content of the genre focusing on girls and the wanting to get together with girls and the hope that girls want to get with you. Both “Madalaine” and “Seventeen” are jaunty and rocky and singalong favourites, and were pushed along by the popularity of the videos on MTV and the like at the time. “Hungry” is of a similar ilk, though dealing with the subject of a new girlfriend dying in a car crash marks it as a point in difference in the lyrical content. The power ballad “Without the Night” is a favourite of the genre that for me just kills off the good vibes of the opening of the album. It is one of the best of the genre... by which I mean it is a gag-induced crapfest. I do dislike Power ballads.
Side one then winds up with a cover of “Purple Haze”, which I think is just an excuse for Reb Beach to get his Hendrix on. This is still an ear scratcher for me all these years later.
The second side of the album shows us more of the same qualities as the first half. “State of Emergency” and “Time to Surrender” both sit in a mid-tempo style reminiscent of other bands of the era, whereas both “Poison Angel” and “Hangin’ On” are upbeat and pushed along more frantically, allowed Reb to better utilised in his guitar breaks, and the band to show they can perform those faster joyful tracks just as well as their contemporaries at the time. The downside to this is that we then go back to the power ballad to close out the album. The third single released from the album, “Headed for a Heartbreak”, is such a poor choice to complete the album. All of the credits earned by earlier tracks are thrown out the window again by the train wreck of this particular style of song. There must be those out there who think this is a good idea because it happens too often for that not to be the case, but once again in this instance to me it ruins what has been a pleasant experience leading up to the close.

In all of our lives, there are albums that we buy on the scarcest of knowledge. It might be that we know one band member, it might be that someone recommended it to you, or you might have read about it in a magazine... back when those still existed. For me it was because Kip Winger had played on two albums that I obsessively adored at the end of my school years, the aforementioned Alice Cooper classics “Constrictor” and “Raise Your Fist and Yell”. And I thought that if he’d played on those, then surely his own stuff would be worth checking out. It was also, strangely enough, about three years after its release, so I guess I hadn’t really had that much information on it coming to me at the time. I know this because I am currently looking at my CD copy right now, with the price tag still attached, and I didn’t start buying CDs until 1991.
My memories of what I thought of the album at that time of purchase are vague. I know I used to play it, but I don’t think it was often, and it has probably been a shelf stacker for most of the years I have owned it. Perhaps not surprising given the combination of hair metal plus power ballads that are the mainstay of the album here. My guess is that I bought this, and the follow up, at a time when I had money burning a hole in my pocket and I just wanted new product.
Through the years, it hasn’t been sighted very often. It’s most recent surfacing probably occurred around 6-7 years ago when I went through a phase of going back through all of my hair metal albums of those late 1980’s and giving them a spin again, and I do remember thinking then that it was better than I gave it credit for.
Into the past three weeks, and I have certainly rediscovered the good and the average of the album. The singles are pure sugar, the power ballads are pure bastardry, but there are a few songs here that are probably not heralded by anyone that I enjoyed the most. Reb’s guitaring is certainly the best part of an album that is tied to its era, and perhaps is best left to that time.

544. Winger / In The Heart Of The Young. 1990. 3.5/5

Though pieces of the puzzle had first been introduced in the early 1980’s, it wasn’t until 1988 that vocalist and bass guitarist Kip Winger and lead guitarist Reb Beach came together to form their own band along with keyboardist Paul Taylor and drummer Rod Morganstein. This led to the writing and recording the new band’s debut self-titled album “Winger”, one that settled predominantly in the hair and glam metal genre. For a new band in this era it had massive success. The debut album achieved platinum status in the US and gold in Japan and Canada. The album peaked at #21 in the US charts on the back of singles such as “Madalaine”, “Seventeen” and “Headed for a Heartbreak”. And in 1990, the band was nominated for an American Music Award for “Best New Heavy Metal band”. That may have been ironic, but the success of sales was more important than how the band was being categorised.
In the lead up to the sophomore album coming to light the band had some decisions to make as to how they were going to approach the music. 1990 was a year where the music had become a veritable hotbed of thrash metal and stripped back gauges from other bands. Historically the members of Winger had a solid background in the hard to heavy genre, with Kip and Paul having both spent two albums alongside Alice Cooper, Reb’s guitaring having a hard edge to it. Rod had been awarded Modern Drummer magazine’s "Best Progressive Rock Drummer" title for five straight years from 1986 through to 1990, so there was a presence there that could push the music in a modern direction. The idea was to build on the initial success their debut album had had, and to create something that would not only continue to please those fans they had brought on board, but be attractive to new fans looking for something more to cast their net for. What Winger offered them was “In the Heart of the Young”, a title that could have been an analogy for where they were coming from, but also where they were hoping to head for.

The album kicks off with “Can’t Get Enuff”, which is almost a Def Leppard song of that era. It has all of that band’s hallmarks from its big selling albums and singles. The chorus, sung with gang vocal backings with lyrics such as “I can't get enough of you baby, I can't get enough, it's never enough, I can't get enough I'm still hungry, Baby, give it up, don't you know” say it all. Kip Winger’s vocals very much channel those of Joe Elliott on this song. Not surprisingly it was the first single released from the album, so it was looking to cash in very much on the Def Leppard wave that was flowing around the world at that stage. There’s no doubt it is a catchy song, that you may love or not love depending on your values of bands utilising another bands success, or just your feelings of Def Leppard themselves.
“Loosen Up” is a Winger song that is of the style they wrote and performed for the debut album, but this does have more attitude, a tougher riff from Reb and overall a harder rock style than the songs on the debut album possess. It is definitely a building and more modern sound, one that reflects the changing of the guard with glam metal and rock at the time, and these extremely talented musicians are feeling the winds of change and moving with them. This is a very solid hard rock song, great vocals again and Reb’s solo twitches excel. “Miles Away” however brings everything back down to earth. Yes, it’s the power ballad, right on cue to drag down the momentum of the album and kill everything in its path. Well actually, it isn’t quite that bad. It isn’t an album killer. The keys and synths are there, and Kip allows his vocals to turn inward and betray the harder style the album should be following, but at least through the chorus Reb’s guitar and Rod’s drums are both hard enough to shirk some of the terribleness from the track. Still – not great. Unless you like that sort of thing. In which case… please leave. This reached #12 on the US Billboard charts which shows that it served its purpose.
“Easy Come Easy Goes” is back to the more hard rock opening tracks - and as was the case with the opening song on the album, it was added late in the piece because it was felt there were not enough rock songs on the album. It was the third and final single released from the album and reached #41 in the US. It follows the style of bands such as Def Leppard and Bon Jovi again, looking for that kind of market. Kip’s vocals shine again here. “Rainbow in the Rose” bring about more Bon Jovi comparisons, though with interesting combinations of the instruments throughout. The solo section that takes out the final two minutes of the song has the bass guitar and synth playing along together as the majority shareholder, an interesting arrangement that highlights the great things that Winger do. Reb’s guitar solo parts intersperse this, but it is great hearing the full bass guitar treatment and synth backup that comes with it. It is, however, probably the most interesting part of the song. “In the Day We’ll Never See” lifts the tempo and energy of the album again, Kip getting some energetic vocals built around the uptempo drums and guitars. Reb showcases his great skill through the back half of the track, showcasing why he is such a sought out commodity in the music world.
But then the band falls back two steps again. The ballad “Under One Condition” seeps in, and... well... you can probably write the rest of this part of the review yourself. I’ll give you this much – it is well performed, the vocals are well done, and as a ballad track you can’t argue that this is delivered as a top shelf product. Well done Winger. You have delivered the product as requested. But there is an alternate universe somewhere where ballads and power ballads do not exist, and the albums in that parallel universe are sooooooooooooo much better because of it. Carry on! Because “Dirty Little Blonde” is back on the album template – the chorused vocals, the stop/start riffing, the tendencies to sound like a Ratt song, the Reb Beach guitar slinging, and lyrics that are of that typical glam metal style but just on this side of the serious line. More than anything else, it is catchy and head bobbing after the ballad disposal unit has come into effect.
“Baptized by Fire” starts with Reb beach’s wonderful guitar intro, beautifully played, that segues bang into the main harder riff of the song proper. This is the more ramped up version of the band many were coming into this album to hear, still holding true to the quality that was heard on the first album but with a bit more kick and fist pumping about it. This carries onwards into “You Are the Saint, I Am the Sinner” which has the most attitude in the delivery on the album. Kip and the backing chorus give us a real boost of demand in the vocals on this track, the kind that highlights the absolute best of the band when they are utilised. Rod’s drumming here also channels this while Reb offers us lots of understated frills and thrills just underneath the main riff of the track. It would not be unfair to suggest that an album full of songs of this type and quality would be well worth hearing. The album then concludes with the title track “In the Heart of the Young”, where the band tries to merge the epic closer with the heart of a power ballad, and almost pull it off. This does actually come across well as a closing track, and doesn’t descend completely to the evil of the power ballad. Instead Kip’s vocals soar, Reb’s guitar swoons, Paul’s rhythm riff maintains the integrity of the hard rock basis, and the band escapes from what could easily have been a severe letdown as the closer. On this occasion, the band pulls through with a great end.

Do you know how long it has been since I last listened to this album?... That’s... a question, not a statement. Because I cannot remember when it was. It has been years, and a lot of them. And this was one of the first two dozen albums that I bought on CD. Because I’d just bought my first stereo for myself, and it had my first ever CD player, I had a period where I just had to buy CDs wherever I went. And living in Kiama in the early 1990’s, our very few record stores were not best suited when it came to the music I listened to. They might have the odd Iron maiden or Metallica album, but beyond that it was AC/DC and Guns N Roses. So searching blindly with money burning a hole in my pocket did occasionally bring up some strange purchases that I may not have ever made if not for the situation that surrounded me. And this album is definitely one of those. I wanted a new album I didn’t own, I was rifling through the racks at Wilsons Records in Wollongong, and came across this album. Now I knew of Winger at this stage, though I didn’t own their debut album, not in fact until a couple of years later. I knew Kip had played in Alice Cooper’s band, on two of my favourite albums as it turned out. And I knew Reb Beach was a handy guitarist. So I went in without any other knowledge and bought the CD.
I had what could be described as a difficult relationship with this album. As I have mentioned already on this season of the podcast, and will with increasingly regularity as we head into the second half of 2025, 1990 was an amazing year of powerful heavy albums that cast an eclipse over the music world on their release, not only dominating my listening but also influencing it immensely. And the albums that generally found themselves in a black hole as a result were albums such as “In the Heart of the Young”. Because despite the overall style of this album channelled the best parts of the glam metal genre of the time and is a well rounded album of the best parts of that, it just couldn’t hold a candle to the major albums of that time – you know them, “Painkiller”, “Seasons in the Abyss”, “Persistence of Time” and “Rust in Peace”. It just had no chance.
The other part of that argument comes from the fairly obvious similarity of some of these songs to the style and substance of other bands of their generation. Def Leppard, Bon Jovi, Ratt and the McAuley Schenker Group are bands I hear clear as a bell when I listen to certain songs on this album – all bands that I generally love their music of the day. And whether it was deliberate or not that these similarities exist is not really important. But in 1990 they were all swimming against the tide, and this album found itself in the same wake.
So I listened to it, and then it was submerged as each of those other albums I mentioned was released. It sat on my shelves, eventually joined by the debut self-titled album. And... for all I know, it hasn’t moved until the past week, when this album review anniversary came up. And it is a serious blind spot on my part if I HAVEN’T listened to this album since then, and I have no evidence either way to prove or disprove the point. But I have had it back out again this week, and it has been... something. From the very start, it hit the right nerves. It transported me back to the age. Sure, the style of metal that this purports to be a part of has been dead for most of the years since this album was released, but it is still fun to listen to. Yes, I even managed to survive the two very ballad of ballads that the band forced upon me here. And the good songs are very good. It definitely isn’t to everyone’s taste, but even on its release, and even despite the onset of grunge being just around the corner, this still went to #15 on the US albums charts. That is a significant achievement for a band many probably missed. And you can still hear how it did that on listening to the album today. More importantly, the musicianship on the album is superb, each of Kip, Rb, Rod and Paul are excellent, vocals are terrific, and the songs – for the most part – are still good to listen to. At least for me, and ageing and slowly disintegrating lover of heavy metal and most of its formats, I have had a ball reliving this album this week in the Metal Cavern. And again I can only be thankful that I started this podcast some four years ago, because when albums like this come around, `I remember exactly why I started it.