Why do people rate this album 5 stars?!!? c'mon - this isn't five star material. That is reserved for Blizzard of Oz and Diary of a Madman. Nothing else has achieved that level since.

I think some people treat Ozzy like George Lucas. It doesn't matter how mediocre the work, they will rate it 5 stars and use the cliched "OZZY IS GOD" arguement.

Certainly, Down to Earth isn't 5 star material. It ranks more towards the bottom of his works. SOme of the songs get boring, with generic mediocre riffs. Look for a used copy, but dont pay full price for this.

Ozzy's new "Down to Earth" album is a triumphant return to the Ozzy of old. It has a sound somewhere in between "No More Tears" and "No Rest for the Wicked". Great guitar riffs and rhythums. Decent guitar solos. Ozzy must have learned something from all of the Ozzy Fests. But can we blame him for trying to make a mainstream album back in '95 when the music industry had turned to bands like David Matthews and the like? Well maybe not, but he has finally gone back to his ripping melodies and classic Ozzy vocals.

Most of the songs are good unlike what Amazon had to say. Actually I found that the "Gets Me Through" single isn't as good as the rest of the album. The second song, "Facing Hell" is good. It contains a good guitar rhythum. "Dreamer" is a ballad of sorts like "Momma I'm Coming Home" was. "No Easy Way Out" totally rocks with a cool guitar riff going on. In fact that song was a seller in itself to a friend of mine. "That I Never Had" is pretty good. Decent guitar rhythums. "You Know...(Part 1) is a short light song of what about I don't know. Confused on that one.

"Junkie" is pretty good as well. "Running Out of Time" starts out kinda like an acoustical ballad, but then electrifies later on in the song and is actually quite interesting. The last three songs, "Black Illusion", "Alive", and "Can You Hear Them?" all are excellent rockers. Great guitar rhythums and solos.

The only thing I found strange was that the "clean" distinguishable bass sound is not at all prevalent in this album as I believe the bass is used quite a lot in a rhythum guitar mode.

The band members are Ozzy on lead vocals of course, Zakk Wylde on Guitar, Robert Trujillo on Bass, and former drummer from "Faith No More"--Mike Bordin on Drums. I think Mike Bordin is somewhat responsible for the change in sound on this album. Although I could be wrong.

Over the years, Ozzy Osbourne's reputation alone has been responsible for selling more records than the quality of the music on them. Let's face it, his career has been spotty, at best. There was the brilliant, yet primitively produced Blizzard Of Ozz, Diary Of A Madman, which sounded great but was slightly inferior to Blizzard, the plain awful Bark At The Moon, the overly safe Ultimate Sin, the slightly improved No Rest For The Wicked...Since 1981-82, the only Ozzy album to measure up to his first two solo albums was 1991's No More Tears. His new effort Down To Earth falls somewhere in between, combining a few inspired moments with moments that, for the hundredth time in his career, come awfully close to self-parody.

Hey, we don't listen to Ozzy looking for groundbreaking music ('Junky' is dreadful), just some great, old-school metal, and for the most part, Down To Earth delivers. Aided by the return of ace guitarist Zakk Wylde and the addition of former Faith No More drummer Mike Bordin, there are songs that sound just plain great. 'Gets Me Through' has a wickedly Sabbath-like riff, while 'Facing Hell' and 'No Easy Way Out' possess a vitality that I haven't heard in an Ozzy song in a long time.

Part of the reborn sound on the album are Ozzy's vocals. He sounds the best he's sounded in years, which should raise eyebrows. He's getting on in years, his singing has never been great, and hey, before the warts-and-all brilliance of Black Sabbath's 1998 Reunion album, Ozzy's vocals on his live recordings have always been pathetically overdubbed (see Tribute and Speak Of The Devil for evidence). I'm convinced his vocals were processed in the same way it's done for children's pop singers, which adds a plastic sheen to the album.

For what it's worth, though, it's hard to hate Down To Earth. The album's title is a not-so-subtle description of the themes of most of the songs. Ozzy does some real soul searching, and while ballads like 'Dreamer' and 'Running Out Of Time' are of the syrupy quality of stuff like 'Goodbye To Romance' and 'So Tired', you get the feeling Ozzy's speaking more from the heart. A line like "Underneath my masquerade/a simple man who's not afraid/I try to find a light to guide me home" shows that he's turned a corner in his life, and that he'll be sticking around for quilte a while longer. Down To Earth could be a real creative rebirth.

Sharon gathers a group of musicians and a team to create Ozzy's music every time they want to issue out a new cd. The final product is always a hallow, lame, and redundant mess. Considering Ozzy has not made music or lyrics for decades. This cd of course is passionless. Ozzy just sings the words written down for him.
Not matter how many people Sharon gathers together. She will never make Ozzy an excellent cd. Why you ask? Because Ozzy doesn't make the music. If it came from Ozzy's heart and soul his solo music would be outstanding.
Skip this cd because none of the music is good. Plus Ozzy's voice is terrible. He doesn't even sing in concert anymore. They usually have a recording or a back up singer.
Don't be fooled! Don't waste your money on this trash!

I wish I could love this album - I'm actually listening to it as I'm writing this review, trying to convince myself to love it - but (and don't get me wrong I LOVE Ozzy, I've been to every Ozzfest and have every single one of his albums, including his Black Sabbath stuff), this album isn't that great. For starters my first point: allot of this album is a clone of 'Ozzmosis' (for example listen the song(s) 'Gets Me Through' from this album, then listen to 'Thunder Underground' from Ozzmosis' then listen to 'Dreamer' from this album, then listen to 'Old LA' from 'Ozzmosis'... you'll see what I mean. And for the record 'Ozzmosis' is better than 'Down To Earth'). My second point: almost every riff from the hard tracks seems to be merely done to please the 'nu-metal' fans - it's like Rob Zombie, Slipnot, Marilyn Manson or Korn style riffs - not the classic brighter lightning 'Ozzy metal' stuff that Ozzy and his sidekicks: Randy Rhoads, Jake E. Lee and Zakk Wylde gave us. Which brings be to my third point: -Zakk Wylde- he's totally lost his former brilliant guitar style and has gone 90% death metal. And my forth point also has (in a way) to do with Zakk, why is he even on this album??? It's so unfair to Joe Holmes (who's been Ozzy's guitarist for the last 6 and a half years) that he didn't get to do this studio album (or any studio album for that matter), Ozzy never asks Joe to do a studio album. So why didn't Ozzy ask Joe to do this album you ask? I'll tell you why, it's for the same reason Ozzy didn't let Joe do 'Ozzmosis', Ozzy wanted to attract more album sells, 'cause Ozzy knew if he put Zakk on guitar instead of Joe both his own fans AND Zakk fans would buy the album. Now don't get me wrong, I'm not saying I like Joe Holmes better than Zakk (in-fact, I don't, but it would have been an interesting change to see what Joe Holmes would have been like in the studio). I just think it's a pretty shabby thing for Ozzy to do to Joe, especially since Ozzy always says he "thinks Joe plays as good as (if not better) than Zakk." Plus Zakk only did this album as a favor to Ozzy, and now Zakk will go back to his own band ('Black Label Society'), so when it comes time to tour for this album who do you think is gonna be on guitar??? That's right... Joe Holmes. Don't you find that wrong? I do, I think Ozzy should check his principles a little closer. But anyways, inconclusion this album IS NOT bad (by far) it's just not our good ol Ozzy (or Zakk for that matter), but more of a modernized Ozzy. But hey, this is just one guys opinion. And one more time (just for the record) I DON'T hate this album (actually their are a couple really good tracks), it's just not up to Ozzy's brilliant standard's, it's more of an album to hold us over until the next Ozzfest....... Hopefully when Ozzy and Black Sabbath get in the studio and release their new forthcoming studio album it will make up for it.