01. Straight To Hell (featuring Slash)
02. All My Life
03. Goodbye
04. Ordinary Man (featuring Elton John)
05. Under The Graveyard
06. Eat Me
07. Today Is The End
08. Scary Little Green Men
09. Holy For Tonight
10. It's A Raid (featuring Post Malone)
11. Take What You Want [Bonus Track: Post Malone (featuring Ozzy Osbourne and Travis Scott)]
02. All My Life
03. Goodbye
04. Ordinary Man (featuring Elton John)
05. Under The Graveyard
06. Eat Me
07. Today Is The End
08. Scary Little Green Men
09. Holy For Tonight
10. It's A Raid (featuring Post Malone)
11. Take What You Want [Bonus Track: Post Malone (featuring Ozzy Osbourne and Travis Scott)]
A new Ozzy album was long overdue, but Ordinary Man is a strange one. After Ozzy guested on rapper Post Malone's hit Take What You Want (included on here as a bonus track), the producer, Andrew Watt, clearly hit it off with Ozzy and they decided to do a full album together.
Andrew Watt handled guitar duties and brought in Duff McKagan from Guns N' Roses on bass and Chad Smith from the Red Hot Chili Peppers on drums. That's a seriously good team to make a record with. It' also a breath of fresh air to hear Ozzy working with a different set of people.
Most of the songs have reflective lyrics, which make me think that when it was recorded, Ozzy was in the mind-set that this would be his last record. His recent revelation that he has been suffering with Parkinson's disease since 2003 and recent tour cancellations certainly back up this theory. Opener Straight To Hell is a decent rocker, and is blatantly about drug addiction. Under The Graveyard documents one of the darkest points of Ozzy's life, and the superbly acted and poignant music video complements the song perfectly. It also has some nice Sabbath style riffing, making it one of the stronger tracks on here.
The title track, which features Elton John, is probably the best ballad Ozzy has ever put his name to. Continuing the theme of looking back at his life, Ordinary Man is a beautiful duet which has a melancholy mix of both celebration and sadness.
There is also a lot of fun on this album. Eat Me is a catchy number with a cannibalistic theme. I have no idea what it's about really, it's just daft entertainment. Scary Little Green Men seems to be about aliens living among us. Again, it's escapism and a welcome break from the lyrical epitaphs that are in abundance on the rest of the record. Scary Little Green Men is also, along with the title track, my favourite song on the album. The chorus is an earworm and Ozzy's character brings some real magic to it.
Ordinary Man is, in my opinion, Ozzy's best album since the classic No More Tears. If it turns out to be his last, he will have gone out with a solid 'Goodbye'. However, I can't shake the feeling that Ozzy will be continuing to make records for as long as his health allows. One thing is certain though, we'll all miss him when he's gone.
