Ozzy Osbourne - Ozzmosis - 1995
It's been a few years since No More Tears but that hasn't changed Ozzy's 90s era attack.
Loud. Big guitars. Heavy production. Ozzfest would start the next year, so I guess this is the album that kicked that off.
But, where Tears was a seemingly joyous celebration of ear blasting pop metal, Ozzmosis heads in the other direction. Over processed vocals, meanderingly gothic songwriting, there are times when Ozzy seems to be fighting just to be heard. He should look at the cover of the record and note the name of the band. There are a ton of co-writers on this disc. Lemmy's back on "See You on the Other Side" and Mark Hudson of the Hudson Brothers (and Kate's uncle) helps Ozzy get back in touch with his inner Beatles on "Ghost Behind My Eyes" but even the production and starpower songwriting can't really save this record.
Because of the gloss and Ozzy's resilience, I find myself rooting for the record to succeed but the makers are so steeped in the darkness that overshadowed all metal in the 90s that it's impossible to do so. Look, Ozzy, you are not Tool. Stop trying to be. On "Thunder Underground" he and his cronies take everything that makes Tool great and misses the mark completely. Trading in style for sheer loudness is not making music. It's making ears hurt. I like it when my ears hurt. From good music. Like "See You On The Other Side", Lemmy's contribution, a mid-tempo arena rocker that almost fails due to excess but pulls itself back from the edge to be, well, the best thing on the record.
Ozzmosis just drones on and on and just when you think it's never going to stop being indulgently uninteresting...along comes a song co-written by Steve Vai to show you, you were right. It's never going to stop.
Then, wayyyyy at the end, the very last song, after the interminably long and headache inducing "My Jeckyll Doesn't Hyde" (Ugh, what a title) comes a lovely little piano driven piece called "Old L.A. Tonight". Of course it gets gigantic, it has to, Ozzy's all about excess, but there's good ol' Rick Wakeman on keys to keep it all high minded.
But, there's no way a little piano flourishes can save this piece of dog crap.
Grade: D
ASide:
BlindSide: See You On the Other Side
DownSide: Thunder Underground
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