“Hey You!”
Who me?
“Yes you! How would you like a new ozzy Osbourne cd?”
Um, yes please
“How would you like Jason mamoa to play him in a music video?”
Oh hell,yea
“How would you like to have an old man make you defecate?”
Just take it all!!
Intro Video
Ordinary Man is the latest album from the prince of Darkness himself, Ozzy Osbourne. Released on Feb 21, 2020, it had a pretty even amount of anticipation and skepticism. Ozzy, who hasn’t released anything in a decade, the unfortunate and truly saddening amount of growing health concerns, and not recording with his actual band? It’s hard not to understand where the skepticism was coming from. I of course am a huge fan of Ozzy. Growing up he was one of the most constant listening's in my household. (Mr. Tinker train is a far too slept on classic). I got to see him with my dad and a friend of his a few years ago when He was touring with Black Sabbath. All the talk was still there about, Ozzy is getting to old, the passed abuses will end him, so on and so forth. What I saw, was a man living his best life, free from all of that. He was up there, running around, throwing buckets of water on people, just doing what he loves. And that right there, is true inspiration. So how is Ordinary Man, lets dive in
1 - Straight to Hell
Who doesn’t love hearing ozzy sing alright now right from the start. This is the perfect opener to set the mood for the album. Has the classic feel from the get go with straight forward but catchy riffs. Nice harmonies in the vocals as well. Some silly Easter eggs in the video if you haven’t seen it. Ends with a pretty good solo. No one but ozzy is allowed to tell me to defecate anymore
2 - All my Life
A ballad already? For a bit, yes. But it comes in with a pretty heavy riff for the chorus that’s not too in your face. All about flow here baby. Solos are pretty melodic too, second one in particular is very tasty
3 - Goodbye
Is this a Black Sabbath song? I went into it expecting something similar to the Slipknot song of the same name. Get choked up in the feels. Yea no. This song is dark, atmospheric, and damn good. Really feels like the modern sabbath songs in the best ways possible, complete with contrasting fast parts. Fusion of all ozzy’s outings? Yes please
4 - Ordinary Man
A match made in heaven, or hell? Whatever. Ozzy and Eltons vocals go together much better than I could have ever expected, and I was already excited when I heard this was happening. Elton also provides the piano here, it’s nothing flashy but it works so well. I have a feeling this was meant to be the closing track, but got pushed up. Fine by me, get to hear it early. I hear the guy doing guitar for this one has great taste in hats.
5 - Under the Graveyard
Great riffs here. It’s really the only time Zakke Wylde is really missed to me however, for the main solo at least. Andrew Watt sounded like he was trying to do a Tony Iommi tribute but fell a little short. The other solos are good little fillers at the very least. The chorus is what really shines here though, going from the clean verse to a hard hitting heavy band jam. The lyrics of this song nod to ozzys current physical state it seems, which adds to the weight of the song. Go ahead and do the zombie stomp to this one
6 - Eat Me
That intro is so juicy. Another song with a solid groove. Chorus is a little cheesy. I wonder if the full course is served with cheese. That continually slowing bridge is filthy. Not much else to say, strait forward song, showing that even the album filler is still good
7 - Today is The end
You can’t get away from you. It’s a saying that’s been around forever but not many people know it as well as ozzy. You can feel some influence from Post Malone on this one, more so in the chorus with the whooos. Solid song but not my favorite here.
8 - Scary Little Green Men
This has a very classic ozzy feel. Feelings of both diary and tears era can be heard. Just because the lgms are cute does not mean keep your claw too far away. It’s a lyrically silly but overall fun song. Plus, the video is awesome, what we’ve seen so far at least. No musicians were probed in the making of this song, I think
9 - Holy For Tonight
Heeeeres what I was expecting from Goodbye. Foreseeing the end is both a beautiful and terrifying prospect. Lyrics are what you would expect for a song like this, but he is wrong about one thing here, we will never forget you Ozzy
10 - It’s a Raid
Great closer. Has a serious Motörhead vibe too it. If you wanted to mosh at an ozzy show, this would be your chance. Post is great in here too. For those who don’t know, and just write the dude off, Post is a huge metal head, watch some of the vlogs from when Jared Dines was hanging at his house, you’ll see. Song is a scorcher. The last line is also lyrical perfection
11 - Take what you Want
For whatever reason they included this song. Then again it sort of makes sense as Ozzy is on the track, and if it wasn’t for Post this whole album would not exist, Thanks Posty! Also, its still a good song that I listen to on the Regular anyway, so yea
If I can be serious for a second, the recent news that is continually coming from the Ozzy camp, and actually Ozzy himself this time, things do not look good. I dread for the day we wake up and he’s the next notification we get that another great has passed. The joke has always been how is he not dead yet, but when that day does inevitably come, it will be an excruciatingly sad day for music. He needs to take as much time as he has too to recover what he can of his health, possibly fully retire this time. But, you read interviews and you hear how much he can’t stand not performing, I’m sure he would feel like he’s dead already if he does retire. Now we have news from Ozzy saying he is going to try and go back into the studio next month and record again. Logic being if I can’t gig I’ll record. I love it. Whatever happens, he has his loved ones to support him, and his millions of fans to cheer him on through it all.
As for this album, it is such a pleasant surprise in its success and if it truly is his last album, he went out with one hell of a bang. It is not a perfect album, but perfection rarely exist, nor does something have to be perfect for you to love it. It’s ozzy showing that regardless of everything, he’s still got it. I will continue to come back to this and blast it while driving through the lovely Silicon Valley traffic. It fills me with great joy that Ozzy is the first artist to join my best ranking, as the inaugural member of, First Class
Thank you for checking out my review of Ordinary Man. Comment below any album recommendations you may have. Click Here to watch my first review of Green Day’s Father of All, Click here to check out my EP in Midi, here to subscribe if you’d like, and ring that bell to be notified of my future videos. Till then Names David, but you can call me Fenrirock
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