Tuesday, October 4, 2016

Ozzy Osbourne - No More Tears - 1991

Surprisingly, this is my second favorite Hard Rock album.  

When this album came out, I was pretentiously involved with my DM, Cure, Erasure, New Order and Madchester, thinking I was so very important to be listening to "alternative" music on the cusp of mainstream popularity.  My sister was not that way, and never was.  She listened to whatever was popular at the time, and it was never the Post Punk or American College Rock that I thought was so very important.  She bought this album, and I scoffed....    At home, I would sometimes walk by her room and hear music playing.  I remember walking by her room and hearing Mama I'm Coming Home.  I walked by later and heard Road to Nowhere.  Both times, I was drawn by the power of his vocals, and the beauty of their "acoustic" or ballad strumming of their guitars.  I didn't know who Zakk Wylde was at the time, but I knew that guy was talented, and I liked it.  I ended up borrowing the TAPE from her and listening to it a couple times.  Before long, I was down at the music store buying the album on CD.

This entire album is all traditional Ozzy, but more than that.  It's almost like what an Ozzy GH album would sound like.  I wouldn't go so far as to say all of the songs could be singles, but the entire album was very well put together and meshed seamlessly.

I will admit I am more drawn to his ballads on this album more than the others.  Ballads suit his vocal style very well. But, No More Tears is awesome, Zombie Stomp is great, Hellraiser, I Don't Want to Change the World, and even Don't Blame Me, a b-side.  The rest of the songs are good, too, but I like these, and the ballads best....

We've got the 2 b-sides and an outtake, which isn't half bad.

Yes, this is my 2nd favorite of all time.  Number 3 would be Back In Black.  But, I can't find any b-sides, remixes or outtakes from Back in Black, so you won't see it this week, unfortunately....

2 comments:

  1. -= Martin L. Gore =-October 5, 2016 at 7:15 AM

    This is by far Ozzy's best album, as a whole, and the title track is his second best song of all time after Mr. Crowley! It might have something to do with Lemmy's songwriting contribution, who IMHO should have released an entire album of ballads, because even the few ballads he wrote for Motörhead were excellent!

    While the highlight of this album is the epic breakdown in the title track, I agree with you that the greatest part of this album are the beautiful ballads (Mama is co-written by Lemmy).

    Thank you for creating another masterpiece by adding the b-sides (even though I wish you had also included the edited/alternate versions of the singles)

    which reminds me, have you heard his younger daughter's song? She actually sounds really good!

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ghjujx64Gec

    btw, if Back in Black is your favorite, you may be able to expand it by using one of the many "Remix Tribute" albums (e.g. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ghjujx64Gec) or remixed tracks from the various remix services.

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  2. Ozzmosis might be my favorite Ozzy album, but No More Tears ranks right up there next to Blizzard of Ozz.

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