2020 CD Reviews - Ozzy Osbourne - Ordinary Man

Ozzy Osbourne

Ordinary Man

Epic Records - 2020

http://www.ozzy.com

"The sun is black, the sky is red

And it feels like today is the end"

It's been ten years since the last Ozzy Osbourne solo album and given the above quote line from the song "Today Is The End" and the seemingly funereal vibe I got from a bunch of the song titles and lyrics, this album certainly feels like it is a farewell release. That isn't anything official of course, but given that the original plan was to see Ozzy off on a two year farewell concert tour, I don't think I'm just pulling this feeling out of my butt, either.

Of course, ill health and the worldwide pandemic conspired against the farewell trek from getting underway which leaves us to take that much more of a look at the Ordinary Man album itself.

I thought the album started off nicely with the hard-charging tempo of "Straight To Hell. It's initial burst of rock energy was perfectly cast to open the album.

But I was less enamored of the next two songs in the track listing. "All My Life" starts off a bit slow through the first verse and then increases its pace for the chorus. It's a pattern that repeats for the entirety of the song but the track itself just wasn't my cup of tea. I wasn't as completely down on "Goodbye" but the midtempo musical stomp was only really interesting when it exploded out into more of a rocker track musically in the middle of the song and then again towards the end.

The first song I had heard from the album came when I was listening to the car radio. The album's title track got some initial airplay because the song features Elton John teaming up with Ozzy on the vocals (he plays the piano on the track as well). I liked the contrast to both singer's voices and while the song feels like a musical eulogy, it is still rather noteworthy regardless.

Of course, try as I might there are songs that just really don't cut the mustard on this album. I was deeply disappointed overall in "Today Is The End" because the main lyrical passages were a bit weak. I say this because I did enjoy the way the chorus was delivered and the harder edge to the music in the solo pricked up my ears a bit. As for "Scary Little Green Men", the song just felt a little silly while it was slogging its way through the opening portion of the song. Admittedly the chorus was pretty intriguing for the delivery but again, it was only when the music got harder and faster that I really had much interest. I was thoroughly unmoved by "Holy For Tonight".

But there were a few tracks that really captured both my attention and imagination on Ordinary Man. I really dug the bluesy harmonica intro on "Eat Me". That intro led quickly into more of an aggressive tempo from that point forward. I'm not sure if I missed some underlying theme with the cannibalistic type lyrics but in general, the song was pretty entertaining.

Now, one of the reasons the album got so much attention upon the initial release was the inclusion of two songs featuring the artist Post Malone. I am NOT a fan. That said, I was pleasantly surprised/shocked that both tracks are actually pretty good. The "Take What You Want" song that was released first by Post Malone with Ozzy's vocals is included as a bonus track. I'd avoided listening to the song when it was released but hearing it hear my first thought was "Well, it's not terrible". It's not a song you'd really expect to hear Ozzy being a part of but keeping to honesty in my reviews, I liked it.

As for the second song with Post Malone, "It's A Raid" is a gloriously slipshod brain-busting burst of fiery rock and roll. The first two minutes of the song are incredibly fast and the vocals are delivered with an impassioned rat-a-tat-tat style. The song downshifts a bit for a full minute for a kind of swampy sound before blowing out the speakers until the song ends. It's simply a ball to listen to.

But in the end, my favorite track is "Under The Graveyard". It struck me as the song most like what I would expect to hear from Ozzy. I liked the mix of the slower and faster pacing styles. The song has an electric vibe to it and the lyrics draw you in as Ozzy delivers them fine fashion.

While there are a number of good tracks on Ordinary Man that I liked, I am still not completely sold on the album as a whole. One of the reasons is that there are so many special guests on the album, it feels more like Ozzy Osbourne is making a guest appearance on someone else's album.

You can look up the liner notes for yourself to see what tracks they co-wrote and/or played on but the album features Tom Morello, Slash, Chad Smith and Duff McKagan. And that doesn't include the previously mentioned Elton John and Post Malone. The album's producer Andrew Watt seemed to be all over the place as well. He didn't just produce but it seems like he co-wrote the songs, did vocals, keyboards and guitars as well as a host of other things. So I think it is a little understandable that this sometimes feels like Ozzy is a guest performer and not the other way around.

I looked around the Net and it seems that the album is getting a lot of positive reviews. Some I can understand because I did like a good portion of the album. But if Ordinary Man does turn out to be Ozzy's swan song recording, I just wish it felt more like a true Ozzy solo album put together by a full band instead of some singular collaborative project that just happens to feature Ozzy.