On Feb 21, 2020, English singer, songwriter and rock-icon, Ozzy Osbourne, released his 12th solo album, Ordinary Man. Ordinary Man is Osbourne’s first solo release since his 2010 album, Scream. 

Osbourne is the former front-man for English rock band, Black Sabbath. However, he is most notable for his solo hits like “Crazy Train”. This album was released just within months of his Parkinson’s disease diagnosis being revealed to the public.

Growing up listening to Black Sabbath and Ozzy’s solo work, I’m a huge fan of the self-proclaimed “Prince of Darkness”. After seeing him live with Black Sabbath 4 years ago, I can easily say I was excited to listen to this new project.

The album starts off with “Straight to Hell”. The track starts off with angelic vocals then cuts right to the chase with a heavy guitar riff. The uptempo rhythm of this song makes it very fun to listen to, even if the subject matter is a little dark.

The 2nd track is titled “All My Life” and is another track I enjoyed a lot. The track starts off slow with Ozzy’s first verse, but it quickly picks up with the powerful chorus. I think the contrast between the slow verses and the louder choruses ends up with a very appealing final product.

The 4th track takes a sharp turn in musical direction, with the title-track “Ordinary Man” feat. Elton John. The song is a piano ballad that features both vocals from Ozzy and Elton. There is no other way to put this, this song is beautiful and is one of my favorites on the album.

The 6th track has a rather aggressive title with “Eat Me”, but I still liked this track a lot on my first listen. This track gets right back to the aggressive, heavy sounds of Ozzy’s other work. The chorus is driven by a head-bang inducing guitar riff, which I enjoyed a lot.

“It’s A Raid” is the 10th song on the album and the 2nd released collaboration between Ozzy and rapper Post Malone. This track heavily influenced by bands like Motorhead, which is very fast paced speed metal. The track is themed around a police chase and features two explicit verses from Ozzy and Post. In my opinion, this track is the most fun to listen to on the album because it feels like you’re along with Ozzy and Post on this imaginary police chase.

Now to get onto the tracks I didn’t enjoy. After my first listen, there really weren’t many tracks that I didn’t like, but there were some I didn’t like as much as the others. Tracks like “Scary Little Green Men” and “Today Is The End” are examples of tracks I probably won’t be adding to any of my playlists.

Honestly, I walked into this album with little to no idea of what I was going to hear. After listening to it a few times, I can easily say I am impressed with this album. I feel like Ozzy had tracks that sounded like Black Sabbath, some that sounded like his solo-work and some that were completely new styles, like “It’s A Raid”. Overall, I enjoyed this album a lot more than I thought I would. After this release, this showed me that even at age 71, the Prince of Darkness is here to stay.