OZZY OSBOURNE
Black Rain
Sony/BMG
· A black cloud rains down on Ozzy’s latest – a bland, if predictable release.
There’s a problem when an album’s biggest selling point is the duration of time since its predecessor. Black Rain is being touted as important because it’s Osbourne’s first studio album in six years. Big deal. Most of his records were at least three to four years in the making. If anything, this only finds the metallic jester disproving the theory that maturity produces quality. As expected, the disc provides nothing. Not even diminishing returns, which is a bonus in some ways. Despite being coherent and decipherable, Osbourne says little on flat, predictable rock songs such as "Not Going Away," "I Don’t Wanna Stop" and the embarrassing "The Almighty Dollar," a tirade on greed. Hello? Looked at your slave-driving wife lately, dude? While Black Rain is far from a failure, it is so middle-of-the-road that the experience is entirely unmemorable. At least that means he hasn’t tarnished his classics… yet.
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