hough some have tried, to date, there hasn’t been a complete Ozzy Osbourne “Best Of” that does justice...until now. After successfully capturing the essence of Johnny Cash, Leonard Cohen, Neil Diamond and The Clash, the highlights of Ozzy Osbourne’s career are now compiled with class. Though his reputation as the Prince of Darkness has been stripped by the revelations of his television show, Ozzy’s music is still as powerful as it was 20 years ago. Following his career chronologically, Essential begins with Blizzard Of Ozz and ends with his last studio album, Down To Earth.

The cream of this album is on the first disc, unsurprisingly. Suitably, it commences with the first song of his solo career, “Crazy Train”, a track that has been adopted by hockey arenas across North America, yet still seems to maintain the coolness it earned with that Flying V guitar in the video. The Satanic-undertones of “Mr. Crowley” are now only amusing, yet “Suicide Solution”, the song found not responsible for the suicide death of a teen in the 80s, still has a chilling quality to it.

From there, it’s all pretty textbook. “Diary Of A Madman”, “Over The Mountain”, “Paranoid” with Randy Rhoads, the humorous, yet classic “Bark At The Moon” (in my eyes his best single), “Crazy Babies” and so on.

The second disc is formulaic as well. A good chunk of it comes from his most popular album, No More Tears. In fact, six of the songs are taken from that album (with the exception of “I Don’t Want To Change The World”, which is actually a live recording from Live & Loud). The title track really does put the rest to shame, with its hypnotic basslines and over-the-top guitar work of Zakk Wylde. Although, “Road To Nowhere” was a great softie from the early 90s that clinched top dog status of metal balladry with its refusal to become a wussy hair anthem like Skid Row’s “I Remember You” or “Every Rose Has Its Thorn”.

For me, everything after No More Tears is pretty much insignificant, considering I never got into any of those albums. The riff on “Thunder Underground” is pretty laughable, and “Perry Mason” has to be one of his worst moments to date, but Ozzy’s a living legend. “Dreamer”, which was strangely co-written by Mick Jones of The Clash, is actually quite good, even though it leans towards adult contemporary territory.

Everyone knows Black Sabbath was his best work, but as a solo artist, Ozzy had some stellar moments. Luckily, this compilation captures the best of his solo work and if anything, it will take you back a few years to when mullets, denim with metal band patches and drinking in car parks was all the rage.