Rank 'Em: Ozzy Osbourne - Music - Forums : Best Ever Albums

Johnnyo

Gender: Male

Age: 67

Location: London Town

Repo wrote:

Johnnyo wrote:

Foghat would have made way more sense.

Got to be honest, technical ecstasy is not a go to album for me to get my Sabb fix but going to reacquaint myself with it right now.

It's really good Hard Rock. BUT, it's a bit vanilla. When you have such a unique sound as Sabbath, a sound that NO ONE could touch, it's a bit of disappointment when you try to be like everyone else putting out albums in the mid-70s and shoot for the middle-of-the-road. It's sort of like HBO wanting to become a Netflix killer with Max. How did that work out?! 🤣

That said, it's still very good album. Better than Foghat's Fool For The City for example, except OF COURSE for the epic "Slow Ride." That song rules! \m/

I'd put it in the same realm as Deep Purple's Come Taste The Band, (which was also Hard Rock and a massive departure from their classic Mrk II sound), but perhaps just a half star worse.

I’d go along with all of that. Having listened to it for the first time in a very long time, Technical ecstasy feels rather confused. For the most part, it really doesn’t sound uniquely Sabb. There are some very good tracks and it’s not a bad album at all. Just not classic sabbath.

CA Dreamin

Gender: Male

Location: LA

I recall listening to Technical Ecstasy for the first time many many years ago when I first got into the band. It was a surprise left turn. Tony Iommi wanted to branch away for Sabbath's signature doom metal, in favor of a more straightforward rock sound. Everything sounded different on here. Ozzy's voice, the guitar work, ballads, the song structures, the additional instruments brought in...it just didn't sound like Sabbath, and not in a good way. I shelved this album for the longest time until this listening project brought me back to it. My concerns still stand but Technical Ecstasy is better than I remembered. However, having the perspective of knowing what the band was going through during Sabotage, I think the band needed a break, instead of returning to the studio so soon to record a new album. It just sounded to me like they were phoning it in half the time. They were probably burned out. Coupled with the fact of how different it is from what we all love about early Sabbath, it's no wonder Technical Ecstasy gets a bad rep. Again, though, it's not bad. I casually like some of the songs. And there's certainly nothing wrong with artists trying new things. Nevertheless Technical Ecstasy is simply not Classic Sabbath, in terms of sound and quality.

My latest rankings:

In order of what I think are "the best"

1. Paranoid
2. Black Sabbath
3. Sabbath Bloody Sabbath
4. Master of Reality
5. Vol 4
6. Sabotage
7. Technical Ecstasy

In order of how much I enjoyed revisiting for this project:

1. Black Sabbath
2. Paranoid
3. Sabotage
4. Vol 4
5. Master of Reality
6. Sabbath Bloody Sabbath
7. Technical Ecstasy

Johnnyo

Gender: Male

Age: 67

Location: London Town

CA Dreamin wrote:

I recall listening to Technical Ecstasy for the first time many many years ago when I first got into the band. It was a surprise left turn. Tony Iommi wanted to branch away for Sabbath's signature doom metal, in favor of a more straightforward rock sound. Everything sounded different on here. Ozzy's voice, the guitar work, ballads, the song structures, the additional instruments brought in...it just didn't sound like Sabbath, and not in a good way. I shelved this album for the longest time until this listening project brought me back to it. My concerns still stand but Technical Ecstasy is better than I remembered. However, having the perspective of knowing what the band was going through during Sabotage, I think the band needed a break, instead of returning to the studio so soon to record a new album. It just sounded to me like they were phoning it in half the time. They were probably burned out. Coupled with the fact of how different it is from what we all love about early Sabbath, it's no wonder Technical Ecstasy gets a bad rep. Again, though, it's not bad. I casually like some of the songs. And there's certainly nothing wrong with artists trying new things. Nevertheless Technical Ecstasy is simply not Classic Sabbath, in terms of sound and quality

I think that I'd have to go along with all of what you say here CA. This album has never grabbed me. I pulled it out the other day and the tracks are OK but I find it hard to remember any as very good. Not a patch on what had goes before but I completely get that for reasons stated above. After so much they must have been totally burned out