The first decade of Ozzy Osbourne\u2019s solo career was a roller coaster emotionally. He experienced great success with his first two albums, then suffered the tragic loss of guitarist Randy Rhoads. He resurrected his popularity (thanks in no small part to MTV) with The Ultimate Sin<\/i>, then backslid with a sub-par effort on No Rest For The Wicked<\/i>. Through it all, he suffered (and would continue to fight) addictions to numerous substances.<\/p>\n
Knowing his ability to rise like a phoenix, it should not be a surprise that No More Tears<\/i>, Osbourne\u2019s 1991 effort, ended up to be one of the stronger offerings in his solo career. The swansong for bassist Bob Daisley and drummer Randy Castillo, this collection features some of the strongest singing, tightest playing, and best songwriting to this point (the final item courtesy of some help from Osbourne\u2019s long-time friend Lemmy Kilmister).<\/p>\n
Things admittedly get off on the wrong foot with \u201cMr. Tinkertrain,\u201d a track that often sounds like a more polished leftover from the No Prayer For The Dying<\/i> sessions. It\u2019s not a terrible song, but hardly one that makes the listener sit up and think that this could be one of the strongest albums Osbourne had ever released.<\/p>\n
Things start to turn for the better with the next four tracks, three of which were co-written by Kilmister. \u201cI Don\u2019t Want To Change The World\u201d is a tentative step in the right direction, while \u201cMama, I\u2019m Coming Home\u201d simply knocks things out of the park. It\u2019s not necessarily the style of music people might have expected Osbourne to perform (though songs like \u201cYou Can\u2019t Kill Rock And Roll\u201d and \u201cKiller Of Giants\u201d all danced along the same stylistic lines), and it has gotten quite a bit of airplay in the past three decades. Still, a good song is a good song, and it definitely qualifies. \u201cDesire\u201d returns Osbourne to a more rock-centered style, and could be a hidden gem on the disc.<\/p>\n
It is the title track, though, that cements this disc\u2019s legacy. With Daisley laying down a killer bass groove, and guitarist Zakk Wylde wringing his Les Paul\u2019s neck to squeeze out every suitable note to go along with it, it all lays the foundation for Osbourne\u2019s solid vocal performance. The track\u2019s success, quite simply, is in the sum of all of its parts\u2014and it makes seven and a half minutes fly by.<\/p>\n
The second half of No More Tears<\/i> isn\u2019t quite as strong, but likewise has some great moments. One final collaboration with Kilmister, \u201cHellraiser,\u201d might have been released before Motorhead\u2019s version, but it somehow still pales a bit compared to the version off March Or Die<\/i>. But tracks like \u201cTime After Time\u201d and \u201cRoad To Nowhere\u201d keep in the stylistical vein of \u201cMama, I\u2019m Coming Home,\u201d and prove to be among the most powerful efforts that Osbourne had recorded to that point in his career (and prove that power isn\u2019t necessarily equal to the volume or speed a song is played at). But for these strong moments, there are the occasional mis-steps, as on \u201cZombie Stomp.\u201d<\/p>\n
Still, the mistakes are few and far between, and No More Tears<\/i> was rightfully lauded as one of the best albums of Osbourne\u2019s career circa 1991 (though I\u2019d even argue it deserves a higher place than even Blizzard Of Ozz<\/i>). It also proved that to simply write Osbourne off after a lesser release proved to be a huge mistake, and even after 10 years as a solo artist, he still had plenty to say.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":24869,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[5775],"rating":[5617],"class_list":["post-46685","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-ozzy-osbourne","rating-rating-b-plus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/46685","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=46685"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/46685\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24869"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46685"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=46685"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=46685"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=46685"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}