Ozzy Osbourne - No Rest for the Wicked - 1989
For the most part this record was co-produced by one of my favorite producers, Roy Thomas Baker, he of The Cars, Queen and The Darkness among many many others.
Ozzy also has a new guitarist, kicking Jake Lee to the curb in favor of Zakk Wylde, how great a metal name is that??
As it stands it's pretty standard late 80s metal fare. If you grew up with this stuff, as I did, you probably got pretty tired of it by now. Interestingly, the fates of Sabbath and Ozzy seem to have flip flopped. Iommi dedicated himself to what he did best, write riffs and construct songs in a very specific idiom. Ozzy is a lead singer. Not really a singer songwriter, one wonders of he ever actually picked up an instrument. The fact that he was always being marketed as either the Prince of Darkness or a crazy bat eater or an ant snorter were all clues to his limited potential. He's completely reliant on the people and players he hires to write with him and sell his brand.
He manages to reinvigorate himself and his listeners by finding a new guitarist but I'm pretty sure that gleam is gonna come off the rose soon.
No surprises on Wicked. It's a hair better than Ultimate Sin. Okay, more than a hair. It's on par with Bark. That's not really saying much.
Baker's touch can be found in places like the production frills of Bloodbath in Paradise, one of the better tracks on the record. I think that says more about RTB than it does for Oz. That said, the entire affair gets a LOT more interesting toward the end as the band seems to be having more salacious fun ("Tattooed Dancer", "Demon Alcohol"). But it's not enough to raise the album above average status.
Grade: B-
ASide: Bloodbath in Paradise, Hero
BlindSide: Devil's Daughter, Tattooed Dancer
DownSide: Crazy Babies
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