Three albums into their career, as one reviewer on Amazon put it, Winger took the "kid gloves off", shed their prevailing hair metal image, and put out an album which really showcased their virtuoso talents. Or so they would have us believe. I'm not saying that Pull - ironically titled for what people were doing with Winger CD's, in the wake of the grunge movement - is a bad disc, or that it does not meet up to the band's own lofty standards. In fact, it would seem, going by the downtrodden, heavily sarcastic mood of many of these tracks, that the band was all too aware of their notorious reputation, and was not above using it as a tool at their disposal - especially if they thought it made the music more interesting. And it does, to a certain extent. But when is it too much, and more importantly, maybe it's not as fun as the old days of the synth-intertwining power ballads and sleaze rockers dripping with professional sheen?