Customer Reviews

In the Heart of the Young

5 star:		(14)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(9)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Winger is one of the greatest Hair Metal bands ever and they ROCK!!

What I LOVE about ALL Hair Metal bands are the awesome melodies, guitar solos, lyrics about partying and women and just having fun, NOT about killing or suicide!!

This is a MUST for anyone who loves 80's metal or Hair Metal!!

My favorite songs are:

Miles Away: One of the greatest metal ballads ever! This song has real meaning and to all the people who say songs like this are pointless, let me tell you a story. Back in 2001, I was dating this guy (I'm a female in case you don't know) and he loved Hair Metal just like me. Well, one night when we were first going out, we were just driving around the town in his truck and we had this Winger CD playing. The only song we were paying attention to and actually listening to at that time was Miles Away. We were singing along to it and of course during the other songs, we talked. We loved all the songs but I guess you could say that Miles Away was one of OUR songs! Well, anyway, months later, we broke up. For the longest time, I couldn't listen to this song without crying. The lyrics say:

"Miles Away, No You're Never Coming Back, I Just Can't Wait Any More, You Were Miles Away."

You see, the lyrics actually was like what happened between us. He was Miles Away later in the relationship. So yeah, it has a special meaning to me. But now I can listen to the song without crying. I will always love this song because it's very dramatic!

Can't Get Enuff: Awesome ROCKER and CD opener!! This is just one of the coolest ROCKERS ever!!!! The music, melodies, everything is awesome!! Play this LOUD!!!

Easy Come Easy Go: Another awesome rocker! This should be easy to understand from the title. Nothing serious, just about having fun!! Great!!

Rainbow In The Rose: I don't know exactly what this song means BUT I LOVE this epic ballad!! It really is Epic for being over 5 minutes!! It has an awesome guitar solo also!!

Every song on here is awesome!! It just screams METAL and anyone would be crazy to pass on this album along with any other Winger album! But of course, I recommend getting EVERY SINGLE HAIR METAL BAND'S ALBUM EVER PUT OUT!!!!!

I love this album since the day it came out. Winger was among the bands that I used to love and hear the most when I was 20. I was really in love with hair rock. I still listen to a lot of records from that period today because I have fun listening to them. It is usually a easy listening stuff, big riffs, strong melodies, great musicianship, good arrangements, big guitars. In those days I was really young and I loved the guitars/girls/let's have some fun attitude. Like any other genre in some years it became boring because every band was doing that stuff, even the untalented. Well, Winger was not the case. Winger was a really talented rock band first of all from a compositional standpoint. Their three albums are there to prove. In this album there are very strong compositions like In the heart of the young, Rainbow in the rose, Under one conditions, that break the barriers of hair rock to enter in a sort of original progressive music that has great musical value. This album has just a couple of weak songs in my opinion Miles away (toooo commercial) and Little dirty blonde a really poor song. Unfortunatly grunge trend put the words "the end" to the story of Winger. What grunge took was nothing really valuable to the world of music for what I am concerned. If grunge was the answear to the degeneration of hair rock, well the cure was worst than the sickness. Anyway this is another story. In the heart of the young, still if it has one of the worst cover of all time, remains an almost perfect album.

I am perhaps in a minority amoung Winger fans in thinking that this album is better than their first. Yes, there are a couple more slower songs, but the quality of these songs surpasses a few of the tunes on the second half of the first album. Everyone knows "Miles Away"--great hit ballad for sure. Very underrated is the catchy anthem "Easy Come Easy Go". This song just missed the top 40 (I believe), but to me it is the best single on the album. Great melody and tempo. Even more underrated is the song "Under One Condition", a slower anthem/ballad of sorts. Something about the melody and message of that song is spellbinding to me. This should have been a huge hit. Rockers like "Can't Get Enuff", "Loosen Up", and the very fun "Baptized By Fire" (which actually has a little rap in it; don't let this scare you--it is actually good) add enough energy to this album to make it a very enjoyable listen. To me the only throwaway track is "Dirty Little Blonde", but even that offsets nicely the mood created from the previous track, the aforementioned "Under One Condition". The combination of depth and fun on this album to me make it a terrific listen in the "pop-metal" genre.

Ah, Winger. The poster boys for chick-friendly hair metal in the 80's. I think their fate was sealed when the wimpy neighbor kid Stuart - who always sported a Winger t-shirt - was introduced on MTV's Beavis and Butthead cartoon. I'll let you in on a little secret though: Winger was good, and I mean really good. Every member of the band was a highly skilled musician, and they had the perfect grasp of what made the late 80's melodic rock sound work.

1990's In the Heart of the Young was the band's sophomore album, and is a very solid melodic rock album. There's no "Seventeen" style hit single here (though I believe Miles Away charted at the time), but that's probably a good thing. I think that song ended up doing more harm than good to the band's reputation. Instead you've got an album with almost no filler, which is a rarity. Little Dirty Blonde and Loosen Up are probably my least favorite tracks, but just about everything else is very impressive melodic rock. It reminds me a lot of the first two Night Ranger albums, in that it's just one great melodic song after another.

If you're an 80's rock fan, you really need to get this album. Forget what you think you know about Winger (especially if it's primarily the video for Seventeen). They're a better band than anyone thinks.

NOTE: Wounded Bird reissued this album in 2005. The reissue does not include any bonus material, and it has not been remastered, so if you have an older copy of the album there's no need to replace it.

The thing that I always notice whenever I listen to In the Heart of the Young is that it's got a slick and grandiose production (it's very layered). That's one of the reasons why I like this second album from Winger. While there are a handful of tracks that are basically filler, there are also some songs that happen to be well-written. The album emanates good energy in places and is quite ambitious and passionate also. The musicianship is exceptional just like on their debut release. Reb Beach knows how to burn those strings (he's a very capable guitar player). My favorite moments are "Miles Away" and "Under One Condition." Other noteworthy ones are "Rainbow in the Rose" and "In the Heart of the Young." It would have been great if all of the songs on this album would have been as good as those. Songs like "Loosen Up" and "Little Dirty Blonde" don't add anything to the album. Their sound here reminds me of Kiss, Y&T, and Def Leppard too. I think that this album is pretty cool.

Strictly average. The musicians are good, but the songs are too smooth and predictable to be really interesting. The production is shiny and sweet, too.

This isn't my favorite sub-genre of metal, but even if you like pop-metal above all, there are better groups and albums.

Winger's second album in 1991 is a monster. During 1980s to early 90s, rock activity is pretty brisk with abundant excellent albums. Winger is among the finest of the finest. I haven't yet listened their legendary debut, but listening to this second work and the third one PULL alone, I know they are A-1 band of finest caliber.

The opener CAN'T GET ENUFF is a killer rocker, and the chorus in midsection is hilarious. LOOSEN UP is another great rocker. Third track MILES AWAY starts a bit too faint and takes a few listens but a nice ballad indeed. EASY COME EASY GO is a bit groovy rocker and a cool one. RAINBOW IN THE ROSE is just a power ballad Japanese melodic rock fans get crazy about and may refer this to as "nakimero...so melodic that it makes me cry"...I like the opening of IN THE DAY WE WE'LL NEVER SEE. UNDER ONE CONDITION is a nice moody ballad that's really touching. LITTLE DIRTY BLONDE is a Gunz' type rocker. After the instrumental interlude comes heavily riffed BPTIZED BY FIRE. YOU ARE THE SAINT I AM THE SINNER has an excellent balance of catchy and heavy side of the band. The title track IN THE HEART OF THE YOUNG is the least impressive one yet a so-so one with repeated listens. Overall, song quality alone makes it the must-buy album for a rock connoisseir.

Verdict: Finest of the finest early 90s rock album
Rating: 96 out of 100. No doubt one of the finest 90s stuff!
Recommended for: Wide range of rock fans. Particularly late to early 90s rock fans.

Just like many other metal bands the hair metal bands of the eighties worked on a very limited musical territory. Still they created something fresh and different that made the opportunity for the listener to think of something else than death, philosophy and suicide and get into a territory where partying and just having a fun and great time were the headsubjct both within the lyrics and within the music. I would never aloud myself to class anything from the hair metal era as world class musicianship, for that something more original and deeper has to be fulfilled. But that doesn't say that I don't like the music, I actually really enjoy some of it very much, and In The Heart Of The Young I consider to be one of the best albums within the genre. With its mix of the music created by the English rock group Def Leppard and the Swedish rockers Europe it fills all the criterias of what a good hair metal album should include, making us remember the sunny party days of the eighties (and re-do them), and just having a great time.

In the Heart of the Young, is Winger's followup to 1988's Winger. Once again Kip and the boys come up with a good mix of rockers, with a couple ballads. Somehighlights of In the Heart of the Young are Easy Come Easy Go, Can't Get Enough, and the power ballad Miles Away. While similiar to many mid 80s bands, Winger is a lot more talented than many of their peers,a great group of musicians. If you enjoyed the first Winger album, you'll enjoy this one too.

"Miles Away" is a very touching song. Love songs shoud be like that. 5 stars belongs to this song.