By Monk
Not beating around the bush, Kip Winger tells it exactly how it is with this, the title of the latest album from his titular project, which, unlike so many bands of their era, features all of the project’s original members. Yes, this is the aptly named seventh studio album from a band who trace their collective career back some four decades. And, again like so many of their contemporaries, manage to prove they are still a very vibrant and relevant musical force, and one with which to be reckoned, more than defiantly holding their own against the generations of young pretenders who have sought to usurp them in the intervening years between those hairsprayed-to-hell-and-back MTV-friendly days of yore….
The first thing that is immediately obvious from this, the band’s first album in almost a decade, is the power and richness which Winger’s voice still possesses. It is not hard to tell he has not just nurtured it carefully over all these years, but that he cares about his craft and is determined to deliver the best, most passionate performances possible by paying such due care and attention to his most important asset and instrument. From the gristle of opener ‘Proud Desperado’ through the classic AOR slip ‘n’ slither of ‘Heaven’s Fallen’ to the dense Leppard-esque crunch of ‘Resurrect Me’ and the funk-infused swagger of ‘Voodoo Fire’, the first half of the album displays the reach and depth upon which this band have built their reputation, touching on a diversity of styles while never straying too far from their basic ethos and mien.
Over the years, I have found that albums tend to disappear up their own backsides during their second halves, as the band concerned seem to run out of inspiration and just fill them with leftovers in the hope that the fans won’t notice that they’re being served up secondhand cast-offs after being enraptured by what has been satiated them beforehand. But nothing could be further from the truth on this occasion as, if anything, the second half of the album is stronger and more defiant than the first.
From the in-your-face confrontationalism of ‘It’s Okay’ to the angry, glunk-fuelled metallic fury of ‘Stick The Knife In And Twist’ to the lascivious bump and growl of ‘One Light To Burn’, the third quarter of the album snarls and spits with furious intent, while the closing section is a delicious final course, with ‘Do Or Die’ initially hinting at being an old-fashioned power ballad before ripping your head off with a typically searing Reb Beach riff and solo. And what can I say about closer ‘It All Comes Back Around’? Well, it encapsulates everything you’ve come to expect from Winger: huge in every department, from the slowly building intro to the atmospherically layered vocals, the massive crunching but understated riff and the beautifully-crafted structuring, all topped off by another deeply passionate vocal.
It may have been nine years since their last album, but ‘Seven’ could not really be described as a massive return to form, as it feels like an album by a band who’ve never really been away, but rather just taking their time to remind us why we love them in the first place… and ‘Seven’ definitely is their lucky number in that regard \m/
- ‘Seven‘ is out now.
- Winger support Steel Panther on selected dates later this month:
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