Album Review: Winger – Seven

Review by Peter Coates – www.facebook.com/InsideEdgePhotography

WINGER – SEVEN
Released – 5^th May 2023
Frontiers Records

This is the first album release from WINGER in more than 8 years, since the excellent Better Days Comin’ was released in 2014.

The band includes all four original members, Kip Winger himself on bass and lead vocals, virtuoso lead guitarist Reb Beach, Rod Morgenstein on drums and Paul Taylor on keys and guitar, plus John Roth who has been the additional guitarist for some time.

Interesting to see that the legendary Desmond Child is providing some of the songwriting here, with a credit on the initial single release Proud Desperado at least.

WINGER formed in the late 1980s and soared to immediate success with its 1988 self-titled release. The album spawned the hit singles Seventeen and Headed For A Heartbreak and achieved platinum sales status, and saw them as support for Bon Jovi on the New Jersey Tour in the UK if my memory serves, at the start of a massive 3 years for the band until they took a break in 1994, when Kip headed off solo, and Reb Beach has since played with Dokken, Alice Cooper and Whitesnake for many years.

In 2002 the band re-formed with a greatest hits album and a US tour with Poison, but due to other commitments they never really went on with this, until 2006 when the album IV was released, after which there were tours with the likes of Ratt, and multiple US and European Club shows and the big Rock Festivals. Then in 2008 the band played at the benefit for The Station nightclub tragedy, out of which came the seeds of the 2009 album Karma. It was another 5 years before the Better Days Comin’ release, and now we finally get 55 minute of the fabulous Seven!

The one thing that I have always believed about Winger is that they are all sensational musicians in their own right, and Kip and Reb have developed a great understanding of songwriting over the decades which keeps delivering great melodies and insane hooks! Proud Desperado is undeniably a rousing rock anthem with the Winger stamp all over it, great vocals, quirky harmonies, some technical sections and a crisp solo, and the record just gets better and better from here.

Winger has shown a great level of consistency over the years, and Seven is no different in that every track is clearly a Winger track – with the same breadth and depth of sound, and the groove and slightly progressive rock vibe. Heaven’s Falling and Tears of Blood just build on the album opener, with the former featuring an immense wall of backing vocals, and some light and shade through the track, including a change of feel towards the end when Rod Morgenstein gets to show off just a bit in the outro. Tears is a monster of a riff that sits behind Kip’s huge range in the lead vocals – there is a tinge of Eastern melody, in the way the Winger often apply such harmonies, and the brief interlude with the spoken word section just sets up the riff for Reb’s solo, which is as clear and pure as ever. The final two choruses are epic, with the keyboards and extra guitar providing multiple layers of sound behind the core of the band.

I dare anyone to not get hooked into Resurrect Me from the solid opening riff, which drives the verse in that darker tone, before the soaring layers of sound lead into yet another impossibly catchy chorus, all the while with that riff and the rhythm section powering the track along. There is an extended solo segment, which may see Reb and John trading licks, before the closing choruses with their sharp accents, taut drum fills, and searing guitar breaks between and around Kip’s powerful voice.

The bass and drum intro to Voodoo Fire, and the thunderous riff that kicks in is reminiscent of earlier Winger magic, and is another example of how Kip and Reb understand how bass and guitars can work together to create a unique feel, and the track features some almost ELO-like choral harmonies. Reb delivers a wickedly sharp solo before the closing verse and chorus, and continues to throw out screaming licks around the vocals.

6 songs in and we get a classic Winger power-ballad in Broken Glass, which hits all the right notes with the powerful delivery and emotional impact – Kip is probably under-rated as a rock vocalist, and when he jumps up the register in the choruses here he really makes a statement. The band provide a dynamic backing to the soaring solo before turning up the intensity for the last couple of choruses. It’s Okay gets us back in the rocking groove, which is super-tight, and has a really radio-friendly chorus, with the core riff delivering an incessant drive behind the whole track.

Anyone raving about the new Metallica record should pick up Seven and enjoy the Reb Beach riffs as with Stick The Knife In And Twist, which are just as powerful and way more melodic! This is high-speed hard rock with a touch of progressive melody – Kip has described Winger as being a Hair Metal version of Dream Theater, and this is not far from the truth. There is more of the symphonic melodic rock in One Light To Burn which sees the whole band contribute to the mammoth sound, with some strong doubled vocals, and another solo over the riff – Reb is not one for lengthy solos here, but each one is beautifully crafted, and then there is all the other stuff going on above and beneath the verses and choruses. Some double-kick drums drive us to the sudden ending.

You can take a breath with the gentle intro to Do Or Die, but it is a brief interlude before we are back in full on power-rock mode, and this features a striking instrumental middle-eight before the song resumes. Kip’s vocals get better and better through the track, and then we get a chaotic mix of off-beats, guitar breaks and Queen-esque harmony vocals to get us to the close.

The band goes back to the more familiar territory of a lower-register melody for the verse in Time Bomb, and another of those catchy chorus lines with backing vocals that are so much more than simple harmonies. Again there are some time changes and off-beats while Reb pours out another solo, and Rod offers a few more examples of his precise but powerful drumming throughout the track.

The album closes with It All Comes Back Around, another one of those Winger epics, like Rainbow In The Rose, Out of This World, Witness or Like A Ritual – multiple layers and changes in mood, driven by pounding toms and rattling snare drum, and with touches of that prog rock feel that are never far from the surface. You cannot fault the quality of the performance, and Kip’s production here does much to enhance the vastness and depth of the sound – sometimes sadly lacking from current mass-produced AOR releases. Reb does get an extended solo piece here, and delivers another one of those mind-bending fretboard workouts that he is renowned for, which helps drive the track through the sadly too-early fadeout! This could have gone on another couple of minutes for my taste!

There is not one throwaway track here – apparently Kip and Reb originally came up with 12 tracks to record, and dropped 6 of them in the initial rehearsal sessions as they were not good enough!

We appear to be in the midst of a resurgence of some of those classic melodic rock bands of the 1980s and 1990s that I grew up on, with a new Extreme album just weeks away, and apparently another Mr Big record on the horizon. We though these bands were pretty special when they were much younger – they seem to have retained the spirit of those heady days of rock music, and improved their musical skills, while bringing the overall sound right up to date. Now all we need is a Winger tour down under in 2023 / 2024!