Music doesn't have to be perfect to be good…in fact, I find that I prefer music that isn't afraid to be real, to be a true reflection of the artist's soul no matter what flaws anyone might perceive.

This is definitely the case with Kip Winger's album Down Incognito, which features acoustic versions of some of his favorite songs from his days in Winger and from his own solo material. The album was created during a period of turmoil in his life, and the pain he must have been feeling comes through at times in this real and raw recording.

(For more information on Kip Winger, you can read the short biography I've compiled.)

Some other hair band artists have recorded acoustic versions of their music; some of it has worked well, in other cases, it has not. Down Incognito is not a perfect album, but it a real album. To me, it sounds as if Kip played these songs for what they meant to him, and not for the messages they convey, for they are sometimes awkward, sometimes powerful. The album is the sound of a musician pouring out his heart into his music, and if some of the more familiar songs from the early days of Winger suffer at first from our memory of how they once sounded, eventually they begin to shine from Kip's earnest performances.
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Down Incognito

Down Incognito features eleven acoustic studio recordings and two live tracks recorded in Paris during Kip's 1997 acoustic tour. Kip sings lead and plays all the acoustic guitars and bass on the album, while additional musicians supply piano, percussion, and pedal steel guitar at points throughout the album. The song Daniel also includes a string trio.

Ballads such as Miles Away and Headed for a Heartbreak withstand the loss of chorused vocals and crunched guitars quite well – they become quiet, reflective meditations on past emotional loss instead of raw expressions of present pain. Miles Away is one of my very favorite tracks on this album – with only Kip singing and playing gentle guitar arpeggios, the romanticism of the song is magnified tenfold over the pounding insistence of the original rock ballad. Syrupy lyrics notwithstanding, it becomes much more apparent that it's a very good song by any standard, with some wonderful transitional chords and beautiful melodies in the verses.

Headed for a Heartbreak features a gorgeous flowing piano played by Noble Kime. There are some awkward pauses in this version of the song between verse and chorus, but Kip redeems this with a beautifully understated bridge where he sings tonally over the continuing piano. My only gripe with the song is the rather sudden and abrupt finish; I suppose that's my bias for the original ending showing through – I was hoping for some more of this interesting piano performance to noodle around with the terrific chord sequence used in the original.

Some of Winger's best work was recorded for the band's third album Pull, which did not sell well given that grunge had taken over rock radio by 1993. Three songs from Pull are included in Down Incognito and the transformation is striking. I think that by the time Winger had gotten into the studio to record Pull, they had finally figured out how to do their particular brand of metal well, and so the songs of Pull are really quite good in their original versions. For that reason, I think that both Down Incognito and Spell I'm Under don't work very well in these acoustic settings. The songs rely heavily on the strong metal chords and rhythmic changes that Winger used in 1993; it's too much to overcome with just a couple acoustic guitars, percussion and piano.

On the other hand, the third song from Pull - its opening track Blind Revolution Mad - works very well. It's one of the two live tracks recorded in Paris, and as such, the band is the one used for the acoustic tour, and they are pretty tight. Kip doesn't need any help from the sound board to enhance his voice; here he shows that he has the right stuff, a killer voice for metal that can crank out the upper notes with superb power and control. This is the one track on the album that really rocks, despite the acoustic treatment.

The balance of the album is hit and miss – the more upbeat songs are fairly typical Unplugged affairs, nothing notable about them except perhaps for the novelty factor. It's the ballads that work best, as the emotions seem deeper and more heartfelt in these gentler surroundings. The increased emotional impact also serves to lessen the impact of hearing some of the more "choice" lyrics of the early songs…

At least he didn't try to mess with …she's only seventeen

That would be totally unreal

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Kip Winger Down Incognito
Originally released in 1999 by DeadLine Records/Cleopatra

Track Listing
Another Way / Down Incognito / Under One Condition / Miles Away / Steam / Headed For A Heartbreak / How Far Will We Go? / Naked Son / Spell I'm Under / Easy Come Easy Go / Daniel / Rainbow In The Rose (Live in Paris) / Blind Revolution Mad (Live in Paris)


Kip Winger's official website:
www.kipwinger.com

Related Reviews
Kip Winger biography
Winger
In the Heart of the Young
Pull






Recommended: Yes