The Dillinger Escape Plan bassist Liam Wilson took on the task of reviewing the new Winger album “Better Days Comin’” for thetalkhouse.com. An excerpt from that can be found below:
“Winger? The Winger whose battleship Mike Judge almost single-handedly sunk with Beavis and Butthead’s nerdy neighbor Stewart’s self-flagellating choice of t-shirt? The Winger whose frontman’s visage was strafed with darts by Lars Ulrich in Metallica’s “Nothing Else Matters” video? Yes, that Winger. Maybe I’m showing my age here, but I can recall a time before all that when a hair-sprayed form of androgynous “metal” ruled the airwaves. Winger were considered pretty impressive and even catchy by my school cafeteria table’s standards; guitar icon Reb Beach’s scorching neo-classical shred and drummer Rod Morgenstein’s arrhythmic rock pocket just narrowly eclipsed the Casanova-ness of Kip Winger’s bass-wielding ballet moves.
As a pre-tween, I fondly recall waiting for their 1988 self-titled tape (and nine others just like it) to arrive in the mail from Columbia House, at the bargain rate of $.01. (I know some of you are probably thinking that I got ripped off.) I honestly thought my interest would have succumbed to the same fate as that well-worn and long-lost cassette, but for whatever unexplainable reason (and trust me, I’ve had to try to explain it to a lot of people who’ve heard my party playlists), my enjoyment of this not-so-guilty pleasure hasn’t really dissipated over the years; if anything, they’ve endured the test of time in much the same ways that certain harder-hitters by Ozzy or Whitesnake have…..”
