Winger - IV

*=Staff's pick	Right Up Ahead* Blue Suede Shoes Four Leaf Clover* M16 Your Great Escape Disappear On A Day Like This Livin' Just To Die Short Flight To Mexico* Generica* Can't Take It Back

Genre	Melodic Hard Rock	Kip Winger	Vocals
Tracks	11	Reb Beach	Guitar
Runningtime	50 Min.	John Roth	Guitar
Label	Frontiers Records	Kip Winger	Bass
Release	20 Oct. 2006	Rod Morgenstein	Drums
Country	USA	Cenk Eroglu	Keyboards
Similar artists	Europe

Winger has made a re-union and recorded a new album set for release in October, news that ought to please many old Winger fans, not least myself. The first two albums Winger (1988) and In The Heart Of The Young (1990) could fall under the category of hair-metal and they had a huge hit with the ballad Miles Away from their second album but if I am to be honest, time has not been kind to those two albums. In 1993, the band released the album Pull that was more mature and also rawer, rougher and heavier and that is an album that still holds well.

Kip Winger reassembled the band with original members Reb Beach (ex-Alice Cooper, ex-Dokken, Whitesnake) and Rod Morgenstein (Rudess/Morgenstein) and with John Roth and Cenk Eroglu, making Winger that was a trio when disbanded into a full-scale band. IV is to be picking up the thread where Winger left us with Pull and with the opening Right Up Ahead they have preserved that feeling well, although, as an opener it is a rather slow track yet heavy in Winger measures. A slow song is no fault to open an album with but then you will have to have a catchy or fast track to lighten up the mood with as second, but here the disappointments start since Blue Suede Shoes, (no, it is not the Carl Perkins song) is a slow and peppy ballad, that makes you fall asleep.

Four Leaf Clover on the other hand is an up-tempo and catchy song that somehow weaves the old and new Winger together, nevertheless it feels like they are holding back and if they just could have let go a little more it would have been better. And this is the case with many of the songs on their return with IV. You recognise the Winger sound but they feel to be older and more tired in their music, it is not as vital as in the old days or not as heavy or powerful as with the Pull album. Songs like Your Great Escape and Disappear rock rather well but they do not rock enough, good songs but they, as well as most songs on the album, feel powerless.

Short Flight To Mexico is something that I would have liked more of, a little faster tune which sounds more inspired, although it never takes off to any real heights. Another track that sounds a little better and more inspired is Generica that has a King's X groove to it, and its monotonous ongoing vocals in the chorus and jamming part towards the end makes it something more than just average. Because average is just what IV from Winger is. It sounds like Winger all right, well performed, professional and all that but no real oomph. In general the tempo is just too slow, after a while all I want to do is drag the music out of them and scream to them to turn up the tempo. I don't expect any speed metal from Winger, and I don't want it either but I want then what they serve here, I wanted the beef but got the salad.

It breaks my heart as an old Winger fan to say it, but this might be the most unnecessary re-union of the year. Back to the drawing board Winger, I know you can do much better than this.

Production	Vocals	Compositions
8	8	4

Summary
4 chalices of 10 - Thomas