After 50 years of a continuous presence in the music industry, Ozzy is here with us with “Ordinary Man” album which I will review in this post.
In collaboration with several important artists and producers of the music industry in large and not just metal music, such as Duff McKagan, Chad Smith, Andrew Watt, Slash, Tom Morello, and Post Malone, Ozzy created Ordinary Man.
For the few of you who don’t already know, the great Ozzy is a founding member and singer of the Heavy Metal Fathers, Black Sabbath. He also has a successful solo career that began in 1980.
From 1980 which is when he released his first album, Blizzard of Ozz, until 1991, when in my opinion, he reached the peak of his career with No More Tears, Ozzy released some great albums.
From 2001 and on, Ozzy maintained his legend with a series of relatively good but no so popular albums. During that time, he had a reunion with the rest of the members of Black Sabbath, at which, as mentioned on the site “Philadelphia inquirer”, Ozzy did not have a good time.
Ordinary Man was released on February 21, 2020, and I’m going to present it to you today on a vinyl record that I bought online from one of the sellers of the Vinylom marketplace.
On Vinylom marketplace you can find hundreds of thousands of Metal vinyl records, from hundreds of private sellers and independent record stores from all around the world. From the USA, Great Britain, and Europe.
Ordinary-Man is Ozzy’s 13th album and it was produced by Andrew Watt, a record producer, singer, songwriter, and musician, who has worked with artists like 5 Seconds of Summer and Post Malone and has been in “California Breed” band alongside Jason Bonham and Glen Huges, who released a very good album in 2014.
Ordinary-Man is a melodic and sometimes melancholic hard and heavy album. His collaboration with Elton John is crucial and I would dare say it almost overshadows the rest of the album… But we’ll talk more about that in a while.
The cover is showing Ozzy donning an old-timey bowler hat but also with a pair of bat wings.
The album has 10 songs. Two of those, “Goodbye” with the intro reminding us of the classic song Iron Man and Eat Me with the amazing intro played on the harmonica are songs that could have been written by Black Sabbath with a classical composition with modern production.
Straight to Hell which opens the album and the excellent Scary Little Green men are two Hard Rock songs with which people are going to jump uncontrollably at the madman’s upcoming shows.
Especially Little Green Men is going to be one of Ozzy’s classic songs in the future. Also, read carefully the lyrics of Little Green Men. I’m guessing Ozzy knows what he’s talking about.
The album contains five ballads. All My Life, Ordinary Man with the “rocketman”, Elton John, Under the Graveyard, Today is the End and Holy for Tonight.
Ozzy has sung many great ballads since the beginning of his career. From his first album, Goodbye to Romance is the one that stands out.
“Tonight” and “You can’t kill rock and roll” are two great songs from “Diary of a madman”. “So Tired” and “No Different” have something to say from “Bark at the Moon”. And that’s not all.
There are so many songs in this style, beautifully melodic songs with which our madman raised us.
Ozzy has always had his unique style with ballads and we can see that to a great extend in Ordinary Man where today’s ballads have a lot in common with the ballads of Ozzy in the past.
Out of these 5 ballads, I single out Under the Graveyard and of course Ordinary Man, that sets the tone for the album, firstly because it’s a completely autobiographical song for Ozzy and secondly for Elton John’s participation.
Personally, the participation of Elton John in one of Ozzy’s albums is no surprise for me. For those of you who remember, Elton John had played the piano in 1986 on a Saxon song, on the album Rock the Nations, on “Party till you puke”. I suggest you listen to this song. Elton John’s playing is truly demonic.
Also, Biff Byford, the singer of Saxon, had said something very interesting about Elton John once. That Elton John has long been a metal fan and once in the late 1970s DJ’d a Capital Radio program in which he introduced some new metal talents.
Elton John has also collaborated with Queen of the Stone Age and Alice in Chains.
On this album, Ozzy is not only collaborating with someone who has many years in the music industry, but also with a new face. The super talented, Post Malone. To be honest, I don’t like “the raid”.
However, I understand that Ozzy and Malone are having fun on this song and that’s great. Ozzy is someone who has always been acting like a small child. In my opinion, that’s good for him.
Unlike “it’s a raid”, the bonus track on the cd, cassette, and digital download, “take what you want”, which is an older collaboration of Malone and Ozzy is a very good song, but a little different compared to the rest of Ordinary Man.
The atmosphere of the album is a bit nostalgic and sad. One could say that it is the epilog of Ozzy’s discography, but I don’t think that’s true. What stands out on Ordinary Man are the melodic non-metal production, the wonderful melodic ballads, and the general atmosphere of introversion.
The three tracks I suggest you listen to first if you have not come in contact with the album yet, are Scary little green men, Under the graveyard and Ordinary man.
Personally, on this record, I miss a guitarist with character. Zakk Wylde or Gus G. could give an extra boost to the album’s musical experience.
Ordinary Man is an album that will be appreciated in the next years. It’s too early for it to claim its place in Ozzy’s rich and interesting discography. But it is a very interesting and fresh album in terms of production.
You can easily listen to is all hours of the day and under any circumstances. I can personally listen to it while sitting in my living room drinking coffee in the morning or a glass of wine late at night. I can also listen to it while driving in the city or traveling by car.
And although it has some weaknesses, the album is pleasant from beginning to end. Having listened to the album too many times, I ended up with the following rating for each song:
- “Straight to Hell” 8 out of 10
- “All My Life” 7.5 out of 10
- “Goodbye” 7.5 out of 10
- “Ordinary Man” 9 out of 10
- “Under the Graveyard” 10 out of 10
- “Eat Me” 8 out of 10
- “Today Is the End” 7 out of 10
- “Scary Little Green Men” 10 out of 10
- “Holy for Tonight” 8 out of 10
- “It’s a raid” 6 out of 10
My final rating for the album is:
8.1
Finally, I would like to say that every fan who loves Ozzy should buy this album. At first, you may not understand what it is about, but over time Ordinary Man will show its worth and it will grow on you.
In an interview, during the creation of the album, Ozzy said that he has put his soul into this album. I did experience that. You should experience it too even if your mind is still stuck on “Blizzard of Ozz”, “Bark to the Moon” or “No Rest for the Wicked”.
