Better Days Comin'

Better Days Comin’ is the sixth album, on which Winger folded fine rhythmic shifts and three-dimensional arrangement into a catchy hard-rock frame. Released on Frontiers in 2014, it debuted at number 21 on the Top Current Rock Albums chart and number 85 on the Billboard 200. This first album in five years was made in Nashville by Kip Winger, Reb Beach, John Roth and Rod Morgenstein, and is dedicated to the late Mike Shipley, who produced Pull. The songs seem to move straight ahead, but a progressive view lives in how guitar, bass and drums mesh. From the drive of the lead single “Rat Race” and the hardness of “Queen Babylon” to the suite-like development of “Tin Soldier” and the feeling of “Ever Wonder,” the breadth built over a 25-year-plus career stands out. Bright as its title, the playing is never lightweight. Big choruses and virtuosic playing lift each other, uniting easy listening and real substance — a mature melodic hard rock that leans on more than an 1980s name.