Sunday, December 25, 2005

Could Ozzy sink any lower?

I saw Ozzy's Under Cover cd at the library so I checked it out. I didn't expect much and I didn't have to pay anything to hear it yet I still feel that I have been cheated out of time. I cannot believe I spent time listening to this because it is unbelievably wretched and I am being generous. It may be difficult to pull off actually doing a good album of all covers, but this doesn't even come across as a very attempt to be good. Seriously, I could not listen to a whole song not one track. I started to listen to every song and kept skipping forward hoping to find one redeeming track that would make me think Ozzy had something left to give and that never happened. Before beginning, I glanced at the songs and really thought he might do well Rocky mountain way and Mississippi Queen, but unfortunately they were both pretty disastrous. The music is so slicked up and just had no feeling whatsoever. I get the impression that this album was done soley to keep Ozzy's name in front of people. It just sounds like someone selected a bunch of songs they thought wouldn't be too hard for Ozzy to do and the music was recorded without any feeling and Ozzy was rolled out and propped up just long enough to record the vocals.
It's now hard to believe that Ozzy was once this huge heavy metal icon, I mean right there with Maiden, Priest and Dio. It's hard to believe that this is the same guy who once gave us Blizzard of Ozz and Diary of a madman. I know other artists like Aerosmith and Alice Cooper are still putting out albums just to tour, but these guys seem like older versions of what they were. Ozzy seems more like a shell of his former self and I think there is a difference. Alice Cooper and Aerosmith still have their personalities and I would bet they can still give a good live performance. Over the last several years at least, Ozzy is seeming more and more like he has to carted out and propped up for an appearance. It is hard to believe, but he really has not done anything all that good since "No more tears" which will soon be 15 years old. I hate to be this harsh and I still respect him for what he did in Sabbath and as a solo artist from say the early 80's to the early 90's. However it just bothers me what he has become and it certainly didn't have to be this way. He is not as bad as Kiss about sticking his name on everything to be marketed, but then again Kiss have never pretended to take themselves that serious either. The best I can say is I am glad there are still real metal icons around like Lemmy.
I originally wrote almost all of this post like two weeks ago and considered not posting it because I really hate to rant and throw off on artists because I sincerely want to hear music that is good. On the other hand, I am a longtime fan of this kind of music and I have spent a lot of time and money listening to it so I feel that I have the right to express myself on this topic.

2 Comments:

Blogger T-_Bone said...

Ozzy is a tool. His wife may have helped revive his career, but she has noiw made him a laughing stock. Plus, the Iron Maiden community (small as we may be) will never contribute to the Osbourne cause again.

6:22 AM  
Blogger Metal Mark said...

It's also funny to think about how Ozzy was so big in the 80's and the guys from Sabbath struggled to do much of anything after the early 80's. Now Iommi and Geezer are at least getting decent reviews for the projects they are are doing and Ozzy can't even crank out a decent cover tune.

7:36 AM  

Post a Comment

Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]

<< Home