On Sept. 9, 2022, Ozzy Osbourne released his thirteenth studio album “Patient Number 9.” This was his first studio album in two years, releasing purposefully on the ninth day of the ninth month of the year. Having 13 songs on the album ranging from 500,000 plays on Spotify to 8.6 million, this is one of his shorter albums in comparison to his past works. 

“Patient Number 9,” the song not the album name, starts with and maintains an edgy feeling with a reverb heavy guitar playing in the background, giving it a good ambience paired with some echoey lyrics that help paint the scene of the song. The reverb on the guitar drops and it becomes a lot more punchy. Ozzy is painting the scene of being in a psych ward, with all the people there telling him he is insane. He talks about taking the pills they give him only to spit them out later. The song came from Ozzy’s time accompanying his wife Sharon in a mental institution after she became a danger to herself in 2020. He took note of how when he was in there he felt like the place was very threatening, making him feel the need to question his own mental health.

“Immortal” feels like it would be in a movie where they are flying in fighter jets and shooting stuff. I don’t know why but I feel patriotic when listening to this song. It has an aggressive metal guitar that is paired nicely with Ozzy howling in your ears talking about feeling immortal. The guitar riff is invigorating to listen to for the first minute and a half but I felt it was getting repetitive after that. An exception is at about two minutes into the song Mike McCready, the one playing the guitar for this song, goes insane on guitar before returning to the original riff.

“No Escape From Now” starts with a slightly distorted guitar and vocals that sound like it is under water. I interpret this song as someone close to Ozzy slandering his name. He had to burn old memories attached to this person as a result. This is further insinuated in the lines “Everybody wants me dead, Are you my enemy? Are you my friend?” Ozzy is feeling spiteful and hopes this person remembers their actions. Later in the song, Ozzy prays they see his face everywhere just to rub it in. 

“Mr Darkness” is in the perspective of a fan writing to Ozzy. Ozzy is referred to as “The Prince of Darkness,” so Mr Darkness is actually referring to Ozzy. This crazed fan writes that they have photos covering all the walls of their room, and that they hope Ozzy would be in their room one day. The severity of the messages of the letters is ramped up a lot as the fan says thank you for giving their life purpose and they hope to meet Ozzy somewhere in the sky. It turns bitter however when the fan proceeds to say the smiles on Ozzy’s face tears them apart and they are filled with hatred that he doesn’t even know their name. 

“God Only Knows” is about Ozzy giving up on himself. He felt that he lost control of his life and is putting it into God’s hands. The message is accompanied by a descending very gritty electric guitar riff. If you ignored the lyrics it could pass for a more uplifting song which I think is nicer than the original meaning that has God looking down on us in disgust. The chorus introduces a choir with Ozzy singing which sounds absolutely phenomenal when joined with the guitar from earlier. 

“DARKSIDE BLUES” is a shorter song with only eleven lines of lyrics. It has a very western feel, with an acoustic guitar and harmonica playing side by side with each other. Ozzy joins in with lyrics that are filtered in a way that make it sound like you are right outside a music hall listening in. The lyrics also give a western feel because Ozzy is singing in a southern accent, or whatever accent you’d think cowboys would speak in. He is talking about throwing his heart and soul away to succeed, and stealing a ring off of a girl’s finger.

The collection of songs on this album was interesting backstory-wise and the instrumentalists did an incredible job, but I always try to judge based off of how likely it is that any songs would appear on my playlists or if I’d at least come back to the songs at some point. This album for a first time listen was good if you are interested in this genre of music, but I don’t see myself coming back to anything on this album. It doesn’t mean it’s a bad album though, but by my own bias I don’t I think it’s deserving anything past a ⅗.