Just given my first full run through of last years Ordinary Man album from Ozzy Osbourne.
It took me a year to buy it and them a few more weeks to actually give it a listen.
What stood out when i first heard the singles last year remains a bone of contention now after a proper listen.
It's produced and co-written by Andrew Watt, a super producer of modern pop acts like Justin Bieber, Miley Cyrus, 5 Seconds of Summer, Post Malone (More about him soon) and others. He also plays the guitar on all songs.
The guitars, other than a few select solos from Slash and Tom Morello sound chunky but programmed, lacking life. It may not stand out were it an album from another rock singer but Ozzy has spent his career making music with guitar greats from Randy Rhodes and Jake E Lee to Zakk Wylde and Gus G. Talents who help with the writing ensuring the band sounds like a band which in truth it doesn't here.
The songs are all pretty good and memorable. Ozzy and Watt write well together and it would be great to hear Ozzy's actual current band (Wylde, bassist Blasko, keyboarder Adam Wakeman and drummer Tommy Clufetos) perform them with ferocity on stage.
Ozzy collaborates with the aforementioned Post Malone on It's a Raid and it's the most exciting song on the record, sounding punky and edgy, similar in style to the title track of Motley Crue's underrated Generation Swine album, whilst the collaboration with Elton John on Ordinary Man's title track also works very nicely.
Ordinary Man is an easy album to listen to, i suppose it's like Ozzy's equivalent of the Foo Fighter's recent pop record Medicine at Midnight.
This is also an instant favourite, sounding like it could have come off his classic No More Tears record back in the day. It's also a good example of what i call programmed guitar riffing.
Ozzy Osbourne - Scary Little Green Men
Ordinary Man (2020)  |