Wow, nice exclusive MSN Sympatico!

Yes, you can listen to the entire new Ozzy album Black Rain streaming which is due in stores everywhere Tuesday May 29. An unexpected treat to be able to listen to the CD that I’ll be there money in hand at the store next week.

Good old Microsoft and their ActiveX, you’ll probably need to fire up Internet Explorer for the privilege, but hey there are worse crimes against browsermanity. The sound quality isn’t anywhere CD quality either which I’m sure was meant to prevent piracy, but it’s not terrible either.

Track by track Hmm thoughts
I will continue to update my thoughts on the full song tracks below as I continue listening to the songs. I’ve been listening while writing this post and will continue to listen after it’s posted. Most songs takes me many, many listens before I can truly appreciate what’s underneath and see what sticks with me.

Not Going Away - starts out with a solid jam, Ozzy sounds pretty good
I Don’t Wanna Stop -
Black Rain - title track, good rocker
Lay Your World On Me - somewhat mellow track, Ozzy’s voice is double, maybe triple-tracked. Can’t he sing with one voice during a slow song? Clearly somebody doesn’t think he can, because his voice is surrounded by his voice at slightly different pitches. It’s a chorus-a-thon. The track Here For You has his voice a little more naked than this one.
God Bless the Almighty Dollar - catchy riff
11 Silver - fast tempo but wish the keyboard wasn’t there. Give us the stripped down no keyboard BS Ozzy!
Civilize the Universe - bass line sticks out
Here For You - piano, this is the mellowest track of the group. Think Dreamer type mellow. Zakk’s solo is too slow, I really wish Zakk would have ripped it up, the opportunity was there in a Goodbye to Romance way, but he kept it more like a Nirvana solo than a Zakk Wylde solo. Disappointment there but overall a good song. This could be the mellow one that the radio stations pick up on.
Countdown Begun - this one starts out like it’s going to be a slower song and then Zakk starts with a pounding riff. More Ozzy chorus in the verse singing. Come on, strip it down! Zakk’s solo totally jams proving he’s still the best hard rock guitarist in the game. Ozzy has one “countdown begun!” semi-scream at the end that almost captures old school Ozzy. The only hint I caught of that Ozzy I caught on the CD so far. I’ll keep listening.
Trap Door - a marginal track, not very inspired. I’ve been a fan of a lot of Ozzy closing album tracks through the years but this one doesn’t end on a very strong note. I hope the CD offers a different bonus track like a rare live version of You Can’t Kill Rock and Roll (Ozzy must have performed this song live, but I’ve never heard it).

The overall CD strikes me as better than Ozzy’s last studio effort (Down to Earth). It’s better than Down To Earth, but it’s not quite on par with No Rest for the Wicked or anything with Jake E. Lee or Randy Rhoads on guitar. Apologies in advance to the blind Ozzy faithful who will undoubtedly show up in the comments below to tell me how much I suck, but I kind of wish Ozzy would have tried something different musically. Maybe Buckethead (if only Ozzy would have hired him) and Zakk Wylde doing some kind of dueling guitar riff thing a la Thin Lizzy, Judas Priest and Iron Maiden would have coaxed something magical out of the Ozzman’s pipes.

Honestly, I like the songs from Heaven and Hell with the 60+ year old man Ronnie James Dio at the helm as much as anything on this new Ozzy CD. Don’t misunderstand me, Ozzy is still one of my favorite rock artists of all time and I’ll be there on Tuesday buying this CD but a lot of his music with Zakk Wylde has become been there, done that. I can’t blame Zakk because he keeps cranking out killer music for Black Label Society so then who to blame, Ozzy? It’s too bad guys like Bob Daisley and Lee Kerslake are persona non grata.

Ozzy needs to break away from the formulaic stuff he’s been doing and experiment again. Like the old days of going out and just writing the songs, recording them on an 8-track and hitting the road. Perhaps too many years of partying on the road really have destroyed his vocal range, but I keep wishing, hoping, waiting for him to release something that blows me away. Nothing on Black Rain blows me away. I’m sure this CD will sell well, but there is no Crazy Train, Bark at the Moon, Shot in the Dark or heck even No More Tears on Black Rain.

It’s time for Ozzy to cut the new studio album with Black Sabbath. That has to be Ozzy’s coup de grace. My dream scenario would be a two CD studio set of all new Black Sabbath songs with Ozzy doing CD 1 and Dio singing on CD 2 with more new tunes. Will the egos from the Dio era camp and Ozzy camp ever subside enough so fans can get treated to that? Probably not, but we can always dream. I imagine a tour with both Dio and Ozzy would be the concert to see. I’d like to see that more than David Lee Roth back playing with the Van Halen boys.

Bonus content with the CD?
My guess is there will be at least one bonus track on the CD. Maybe a pack-in DVD too? We already know there will be some sort of Ozzfest offer. Guess we’ll find the rest out next Tuesday. Cool idea letting an online service stream the whole album a few days before the release. I don’t want to speculate what MSN paid for the exclusive but I’m sure it wasn’t cheap. Thank you to whomever paid for this, more, more, more. It isn’t going to prevent a sale from me at least.

Did this post make you go hmm?

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