Kip Winger 'From The Moon To The Sun'

It’s hard to know where to start with Kip Winger. It’s like trying to preach to the deaf. Either you are fully aware of this man’s extraordinary talent or you are not. I don’t like to use the word genius loosely, but there you have it, I just have.

Most songwriters dry up by the time they are 30, whereas Kip Winger continues to produce and compose so much high calibre music it’s uncanny. I always worry that he will run out of any decent material for his own solo work, but I can assure you that, once again he hasn’t.

His latest epic ‘From The Moon To The Sun’ is possibly his greatest effort so far, which in itself is achievement, as his own standards are impossibly high in the first instance. Anyway, let’s cut the waffle and sum this wonder up.

Overview!

The general balance and atmosphere of ‘From The Moon…’ is very reminiscent of his previous solo albums. A highly textured, harmonious tapestry of sounds and influences from his own pop/rock sensibilities to Middle Eastern flavours as heard in the opening ‘Every Story Told’ with it’s string surges and a lively Andy Timmons’ solo, to the instrumental ‘Ghosts’, conjuring up imagery of Ingmar Bergman movies and Prokofiev soundtracks. Whereas the massive ‘Nothing’ would fit neatly into the Winger IV album.

There are no standout tracks in reality. At first I noticed ‘Pages and Pages’ with it’s lush balladry and beautiful outro: trickles of piano, swaying strings and sensitive rhythm. Then maybe the vocally epic ‘In Yours Eyes Another Life’. But soon it dawned on me that the whole album is blessed.

‘Where Will You Go’ is another beautiful performed and recorded ballad. ‘California’ echos his earlier solo work, with a floating pace, smothered in light pianos and Andy Timmons sensitive fretwork. Lush.

The reaction to these soundscapes, almost Gabrielesque at times, are some uptempo numbers like ‘What We Are’, ‘One Big Game’ and ‘Reason To believe’ which display some harder overtones but are still elevated.

Conclusion

You need time and space to absorb and consider music of this quality and depth. For this very reason, I fear that Kip’s days of commercial success will remain undeservedly in the past.

In his own word’s “I worked hard to make this record my best yet.” So there you have it, Kip Winger is not only a genius but a man of his word.