Reviewed by Ian Phillips.
By Ozzy Osbourne, Epic Records/Sony Entertainment, 2020.
Yes, the man that refuses to die, Ozzy Osbourne, is back with a new album and, believe it or not, he is actually sounding better than ever.
Ordinary Man is the first new material that Ozzy Osbourne has released in 10 years and he’s employed a rather unique method of promoting it to his fan base.
On Thursday 20 February he launched an album listening event in 50 cities world-wide including Sydney.
We’ve known that something was coming from Ozzy because he’d already released three singles from the album.
The first single, Under The Graveyard, has tallied over 15 million streams and 5.3 million YouTube views and the title track, Ordinary Man, featuring Sir Elton John, has already achieved seven million streams and climbing.
The third single, Straight To hell, featuring Slash, has scored 6.9 million streams and 4.2 million YouTube views.
These are remarkable figures and show the interest that this icon of hard rock still generates.
Ordinary Man is a remarkable album. The album was recorded in Los Angeles and was produced by Andrew Watt, who also plays guitar on the disc.
The other band members include Duff McKagan from Guns N’ Roses on bass and Chad Smith from Red Hot Chili Peppers on drums. They were joined by a group of Ozzy’s friends including Sir Elton John, Slash, Post Malone, Travis Scott and Tom Morello.
The most surprising thing for me is how good Ozzy’s voice still is. For a man who has defied death so often, and probably done irreparable damage to most of his vital organs through ingesting substances that would kill a camel, he seems to have done little damage to his vocal cords.
There is tremendous variety on the album. From the harmonica driven opening to Eat Me through the ominous Scary Little Green Men to the choir-backed confessional of Holy For Tonight, Ordinary Man presents a multi-faceted artist who has earned his icon status and shown that he still has a lot more to give.