Track Listing

1. Madalaine
2. Hungry
3. Seventeen
4. Without the Night
5. Purple Haze
6. State of Emergency
7. Time to Surrender
8. Poison Angel
9. Hangin On
10. Headed for a Heartbreak
11. Higher and Higher [*]

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #58406 in Music
• Released on: 1990-10-25
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: .20 pounds

Album Description
Japanese only SHM pressing. Features 24-bit mastering and packaged in a paper sleeve. The SHM-CD [Super High Material CD] format features enhanced audio quality through the use of a special polycarbonate plastic. Using a process developed by JVC and Universal Music Japan discovered through the joint companies' research into LCD display manufacturing SHM-CDs feature improved transparency on the data side of the disc allowing for more accurate reading of CD data by the CD player laser head. SHM-CD format CDs are fully compatible with standard CD players.

Customer Reviews

Harder brand of hair metal with powerful guitars and vocals
In the wave of hair metal that was coming out, one of the harder ones was Winger, which strongly benefited from guitarist Reb Beach's crunching guitar and with all band members accompanying bassist Kip Winger in the chorus and pre-chorus segments. His vocal register is high like David Coverdale, and there are times when he emulates Robert Plant's banshee-like yelps. Other times, imagine if Jon Bon Jovi had the bestial intensity of Gene Simmons. He sounds like that when he's belting'em out.

"Madalaine" was their first single and is just the latest in a long line of women over whom a warning sign should be placed: "Beware the girl/beware the pain." Pretty intense guitars and power vocals here, as there are in many of the other songs.

Their use of actual strings on the melodic soft portions of "Hungry" must count for something where others were using synths. The rest of the song is straight up slow metal.

The hard-rocking and hook-catchy "Seventeen" was the second single I heard from them. I will have to say KISS had that beat with "Christine Sixteen" via the age of the girl, but the forbidden love aspect is hinted with "Daddy says she's too young/but she's old enough for me." Love that fiery guitar solo towards the end.

With its keyboards and lighter electric guitar, "Without The Night" could've been a good power ballad single, just as good as "Headed For A Heartbreak."

Their take on "Purple Haze" is definitely heavier than the original, and while there is some aping of Hendrix's guitar, probably Dweezil Zappa's left-side solo, it's still an exercise in bombastic hard metal.

"Time To Surrender" with a chugging guitar riff, is an all-out "no mas" against a woman he's had enough of. I wonder about the poker analogies that always come out in these situations: "I won't play your game and I won't play your fool" and "Best be makin' your move/play your last hand"

"Poison Angel" is very high energy metal and guitar theatrics. That is followed by "Hangin On", with some Eddie Van Halen-style guitar. Come to think of it, David Lee Roth could've made something of this, 1984-era.

Power keyboards are prominent in the light rocker "Headed For A Heartbreak", and which probably helped it hit the Top 40.

"Higher And Higher" is another power rocker and is about one of those kind of women. What kind? "Primal scream, she's got the body of sin/should be a law against such an invention", which usually means she's bad news, and she is.

Harder than Poison or Whitesnake, more on the Def Leppard end of the spectrum, but nothing surpassing early Ozzy or KISS's Animalize. Their heavy sound is what carries this sound, thanks to Reb Beach's guitar and Kip Winger's vocals.

Great heavy metal masterpiece
I have loved the majority of songs on Winger's debut album since its release in 1988. I had an intense crush on Kip Winger (who I thought was incredibly sexy. My opinion hasn't changed) but he proved he could back up those sexy looks with his immense talent, belting out such ballads as "Headed For a Heartbreak." His voice was seductive in "Seventeen" and I loved the way he wailed on "Madalaine."

I don't know who created this term "hair bands" to describe late-80's heavy metal groups but it's a bit annoying. Yeah, I realize they had "big hair" (hence the label) but I just look at groups such as Winger, White Lion, and the like as great bands of the late-80's who could write and sing their own songs (creating some great ballads in the process) who were, unfortunately, flushed out by "grunge" bands such as Nirvana and Pearl Jam in the early-90's.

For shame because Winger and company were a talented group of musicians. - Donna Di Giacomo

Excellent keyboard/arena rock
This is the first album from a band who received one of the worst backlashes in the 90's. Kip Winger, the vocalist, really has a distinct voice from his peers, it sounds great! Reb Beach is one of the underrated axe men in the business and is now in Dokken. Rod Morgenstein was good enough on the drums to become a drum teacher.

There are a lot of good songs on this disc, the best of them come early, "Madalaine" "Hungry" "Seventeen" "Without the night" and "Purple Haze" in that order, with tracks 1 and 3 being the big hits. The band does a fine job with Hendrix's "Purple Haze" but it led to a HUGE number of bad reviews from critics and fans alike who deem Hendrix's work to be untouchable and any band to cover it to be pompous.

Tracks 6 through 9 are quite generic and not that memorable but Track 10 is the big ballad "Headed for a heartbreak" and Kip sings the song in two different vocal styles, one for the first half of each verse and another for the second. Track 11 is a bonus track "Higher and higher" which while it isn't overly memorable, make sure your copy has that bonus track on it before you buy so you can get the most bang for your buck.

This album has a lot of keyboard work and you can compare this first album to "QRIII"-era Quiet Riot, Night Ranger, Danger Danger's first album, "Long way to heaven" by Helix and most of Autograph's output. Here's some good news, each subsequent album ("In the heart of the young" followed by "Pull" in 1993, after which the band split up) is better than the one before! A must buy for fans into the lighter side of rock (this stuff isn't TOO light, though!), fans of heavier stuff should listen before buying.