vmagistr
It's not so usual that the lead singer of a rock band, who literally wrote the history of the genre, surpasses his mother band on his solo career. In relation to Black Sabbath, Ozzy Osbourne has managed to do this, at least on the key American market, probably thanks to the fact that he bet on the commercially rewarding form of the quickly emerging heavy metal and, at least in the early years, managed to find best quality bandmates who put their skills and personalities into the recordings.
More than forty years later, there is no less controversy associated with good old Ozzy than there was in 1980. He no longer commits all sorts of mischief at concerts and beyond, and clean of most substances he doesn't act like a loose cannon, but most attention is drawn to his health by many fans. It also raises the question of how much influence Osbourne really has on the music that came out on his records in the last two decades, and whether his name is just marketing a job that someone else in the studio had the lion's share of. The album Patient Number 9, which Ozzy released in 2022, offers quite positive answers in my opinion.
The album's main highlight is the title track, Patient Number 9 - the role of the psychologically scarred wretch being "liquidated" by the surrounding system has always suited Ozzy very well. Melodically we have a clear hit here, which is good supported by a very generous seven-minute duration, and the electronic backing lines do a good job as well. Everything here is geared towards perfectly pitched choruses with enlivening backing vocals, and when one of them brings out an arpeggio with an unmistakable tone, chills go down my spine. Jeff Beck didn't do that much work in this track (he basically added a few solo outings), but he left a bit of soul in the little he did. He got a more prominent role in the post-apocalyptic ballad A Thousand Shades, where his soothingly "clucking" solo over a forest of strings forms a counterpoint to the resigned sadness of the rest of the track.
From the second half of the approximately hour-long collection, I really like the piece Nothing Feels Right, from which the inspirational thread winds back to the nineties albums Ozzmosis and Down to Earth, or the dense affair Degradation Rules with perfect harmonica. Ozzy is joined there by former Black Sabbath partner Tony Iommi, and in my opinion, they were more successful here than in the slow piece No Escape from Now, from which the Sabbath "pattern" stares a little too flashy. The choruses of Dead and Gone and Evil Shuffle or the wilderness of Parasite with Zakk Wylde's fuzz-soaked guitar are also good, if you ask.
On his own, Ozzy Osbourne wouldn't be able to make a good record anymore - he doesn't just happen to have that production team and a bunch of reliable sidemen around him. On the other hand, his vocals and lyrics are such an important part of the whole, for which I have quite complimentary words, so it wouldn't have been possible without him. Records that attract star guests and a variable line-up around a refreshed core started to be released after the covid in vast numbers, but in Ozzy's case I think he managed to come up with a very solid record.
