Winger - The Very Best of Winger

Really? This is the best of Winger? The problem with this album is that it runs in reverse chronological order. Everyone knows that hair metal bands struggled as the world settled into the 90's. Why would you put your worst songs first?

The album opens with "On the Inside," a track recorded in 2001 specifically for this compilation, which disqualifies it as a hit. It also sounds exactly like a hair metal band trying to pull off alternative. Then they throw a lineup of six straight songs from Pull, Winger's first album of the 90's. Remember what I said about hair metal bands struggling to stay relevant in the 90's? Yeah. Most of these songs suck out loud.

By the time I got to the songs from In the Heart of the Young, Winger's second album, I was sure I hated Winger. The songs on In the Heart of the Young are actually great hair metal, but I was too tired of Winger to enjoy them. By the time I got to the mega-hits from Winger's self-titled debut, I was almost too worn out to care. This album is top-heavy with bad tracks from Winger's worst era. If I had done a little research, I would have seen that Winger had two great hair metal albums in the 80's and nothing but crap thereafter. I, and everyone else on the planet, would be better off just buying Winger or In the Heart of the Young (both of which are sadly underrepresented on The Very Best of) because either of them would serve as better greatest hits compilations than The Very Best of Winger does.