Stephen Winger extended the success of their debut and eventually reached their height with this album. "In The Heart of The Young" was also certified platinum and featured a more serious approach in the lyric department and displayed a more complex composition as well as an even better guitarplaying by Reb Beach. Three singles that became their hits back then are also among my all time fave Winger tracks. "Can't Get Enuff" is such a huge uptempo rocker, "Easy Come Easy Go" blows high with its catchy groove, and "Miles Away" is definitely their best ballad ever written but funny thing is that the author of the track isn't Kip Winger who basically wrote almost all of their songs.

There are two other great power ballads inside: "Rainbow In The Rose" that featured the trumpet plays of Chris Botti and Beach's fantastic outro solo, and "Under One Condition", although this one isn't as good as the others, this is still a very good emotional piece. "In The Day We'll Never See" is also an underrated uptempo tune, least-known track but has the big power and hooks you'll never imagined. However, a shame that tracks like "Little Dirty Blonde" or the title track are relatively weak and can be considered fillers. "Baptized By Fire" actually is quite good and I highly admired the insane intro, but when the weird rap coming in, it's all over.

Winger is one of the few bands that never disappointed me. I love all their albums and this one is also surely loved by many glam fans. If only couples of tracks are better, I won't hesitate to give this a perfect five stars. Reb Beach is the ultimate highlight of the band but Kip Winger's warm voice is unique, calming, and comfortably blended well with their music. Great stuff and four-stars is warranted, I just can’t get enuff with this classic !

ydewata Sexy hard rock music. Yep, that’s what I call Winger’s musical direction. Eleven killer tracks from Winger’s second release “In The Heart of The Young” shows their maturity of music. The album opener is “Can’t Get Enuff”, a sexy and rhythmic tune and –of course- full of implicitly sexy lyrics. The second track “Loosen’ Up” perfectly fits into the bill as the first one. I think the one that caught most of the attention in this record is –surprisingly—wasn’t written by the mastermind bassist/vocalist Kip Winger. “Miles Away” is most probably the best ballad ever recorded by Winger. This song was written by keys-man/guitarist Paul Taylor.

Another surprise output from this band, they went a bit darker here. Tracks such as “Rainbow In The Rose” or “Under One Condition”. This is great, since I like dark. Although probably it would be less-commercial for their record sale. Most probably you will love Reb Beach’s guitar-driven signature on “Little Dirty Blonde”, less spectacular than his well-penned signature on “Seventeen” from the first record, but surely this will make you dance for sure.

“Baptized By Fire”, is that Kip’s bass solo in the beginning of the song? Nice job, Kip! I think, the last 2 tracks in this record are great album closers. “You Are The Saint, I Am The Sinner” and title-track “In The Heart of The Young” are among of my favorite tracks down here.

Jeez, I do miss all those hard rock days. I always close my eyes and relive those days when I play this disc at night.

Negoba Solid Heirs to Journey's Throne

People often forget that Journey started as a group of young Santana alumni and that the players were actually really talented musicians. Super-slick pop can seem easier than it is, and Winger got a lot of flack for putting out a VERY slick product. But although it seemed like this band was another group of faces propped up by a savvy producer, it was actually a single face and four studio level musicians. All had done session work before, with Rod Morgenstern having a big gig with Steve Morse's Dregs. Reb Beach had been a fave of mastermind Beau Hill already. In fact, Winger the band was Hill's creation and such deserves a bit of the jabs.

But for those of us who like glam metal with plenty of guitar chops, Winger was a tantalizing band. Reb Beach had developed post-Van Halen tapping to a level that virtually only Satriani and Vai had achieved at that time. What's more, his incorporation of the techniques into the monstrously active and tasty solo to "Headed for a Heartbreak" but him on the guitar map forever. He gets some great spots throughout the album, but this solo is his legacy. I saw Winger on this tour as part of a triple bill, the first rock concert I attended. Beach's solo was one of the more impressive I've ever seen. But I digress...

The songs are good hard pop rock, with much more in common with Journey than even AC/DC and certainly little in common with Iron Maiden. But the chops of the players and especially the shred guitar are what elevated the album to more metal-minded interests.

Bottom Line: Pop Metal with a Great Shredder

ovidiu The fifth WINGER studio album released in 2009 is in my opinion,the best WINGER album ever!It was quite hard for me to admit this,but after several auditions I must do this statement-KARMA IS THE BEST WINGER album so far!I was a little dissapointed by the IV album,which was far from being a bad one,but it didn't bring the spark of creativity and inspiration that I was expected after so many years of silence!KARMA is PERFECT from the first to the last song!It contents the best songs ever written by Kip and Reb and it's really inspired!The presentation of the album is superbe too-black digipack and fits perfectly with the compositions!The debut of the album is really "IN YOUR FACE" style -DEAL WITH THE DEVIL and STONE COLD KILLER are sensational-crunchy uptempo songs-pure American metal at it's best-and both tracks are some of the best ever WINGER compositions written!All the compositions are at a very high level and Reb's solos are fantastic too!Kip's voice never sounded better and the production is awesome!The guys are back with a vengeance-after the mediocre IV album and they hit hard with this new one!The slow songs are close to perfection and are so sensitive and beautiful-almost breathtaking!The SPECIAL EDITION has a DVD page with the MAKING OF -interesting and pleasant to see the huge work in a studio and the complicated process of production and recording!So all our respect to Mr Kip Winger and the other 3 outstanding musicians that made such an inspired cd in 2009 and the hope that they still have many bullets to be shot in the future! 5 STARS without any comment!

ovidiu From the beginning I want to say that the debut album of WINGER is one of the best and most spectaculat debut albums ever in the history of rock music!OK..the band had an impressive pedigree,Winger came from ALICE COOPER...Morgensters from Dixie Dreggs...Reb BEeach was a name too...but the tremendeous quality of the compositions and the sensational muicianship of all WINGER members,made of this album a true musical pearl!It's trully sensational,all compositions are so damn well worked and the solos of Reb Beach are stellar!It's pure US big rock,I won't say metal,it's hair metal maybee,but this album is timeless!A marvelous production with a big sound gave this album all the elements of a strong production and it wasn't any surprise that this album sold more then 1 million copied world wide!It's 100 % commercial,but that's it's charm-it perfectly combines the hard rock riffs with great melodies and choruses.KIP WINGER has a fabulous voice,powerful and warm in the same time ,with a wide range of vocal register in different tones!Madeleine is an excellent debut track with a punchy chorus and this amazing technicity of the solo of REB BEACH-trully impressive on each solo on any track of the album !PURPLE HAZE-the cover song from HENDRIX-proves how a classic can get new musical clothes and become really attractive at another level!All tracks are outstanding !Definitelly a classic-5 STARS for a perfect debut!