POP

A.D. AMOROSI

Lil Uzi Vert HHHH Eternal Atake (Atlantic)

I like surprises. And I like Philly’s Lil Uzi Vert. So imagine my surprise at his two surprise offerings. After three years of starts, stops, Instagram fit pics, retirements, guest features, Heaven’s Gate Hale-Bopp lawsuits and

for all of its teary goodbyes, Ordinary Man manages to be eerily elegiac and dumb fun at the same time. Then again, Osbourne’s entire solo career has been similarly funereal and goofy. So what’s the big difference in Osbourne, then and the now? This time out, Ozzy is going for sprightly hard

$90,000 college tuition payoffs to those willing to finish school Uzi decided to not only drop one version of his long-awaited Eternal Atake album—his first full artist since 2017’s Luv is Rage 2. Uzi dropped two versions of Eternal Atake, the second version coming one week later, featuring 14 additional new songs, and co-starring fellow rappers Future and Young Thug. Uzi Vert’s new epic finds him at a time where space is the place (to quote Sun Ra), glitch-rapping his way through curt cuts such as “Urgency,” and “POP,” both sounding as frantic and fun as their titles, “Chrome Hearts Tags” comes from a beat originally crafted by Chief Keef, “Baby Pluto” is hot, odd and piercing. And the entirety of Eternal Atake is a massively fullblooded work, genius-level hip hop busting at the seams with ideas that boldly go where no Philly rapper has before.

The reward for Uzi from his fan base is that Eternal Atake leapt straight into No. 1 on the Billboard 200 Album Chart, thus marking his second No. 1 album and the biggest streaming week for an album since 2018. As hysterical as it is historical. Lil Uzi Vert’s radically percussive and shockingly melodic new album is a masterpiece.

Ozzy Osbourne HH Ordinary Man (Epic)

The Blizzard of Oz’s first solo album in ten years often feels as if the one-time Black Sabbath singer intended this as a mournful swan song. Yet, rock more so than turgid rough metal, and Ordinary Man is more lavishly produced than Ozzy’s sludge-glam sound of his past. Blame Ozzy’s new producer Andrew Watt, of Cardi B’s Invasion of Privacy and Post Malone’s Beerbongs & Bentleys fame, for bringing a pop sheen to Osbourne’s usual sludge metal proceedings.

To go with that lighter sonic touch, Watt, who co-wrote the tracks and played guitar here, brought in a core group of ragers—Guns N’ Roses bassist Duff McKagan, and Red Hot Chili Peppers drummer Chad Smith— along with guests such as Malone, Elton John, Charlie Puth and Slash. With most of its tracks recorded in one or two takes (according to Osbourne during a SiriusXM live listening session in Hollywood on Feb. 13), Ordinary Man juts out at the listener. Opening with an airy heavenly choir’s wails, “Straight to Hell” wastes no time before its narrator screeches “All right now” as he did back on the Sabbath classic “Sweet Leaf.” There’s (thankfully) not a lot of Black Sabbath touchstones here; the gloom gods ended their run several years ago. The only memories being summoned here are pure solo Ozzy, with its riffing guitar sound curt and cutting. With that, Ordinary Man is like driving a clown car through a funeral wake. It’s great, fast fun even when it’s sad.

Megan Thee Stallion HHH Suga (1501 Certified/300 Entertainment)

Houston rapper Megan Thee Stallion is (or should be) as beloved for her hooks as she is the swagger of sensuality. The guttural confidence that is her flagrant lyrical display is not explicit. This isn’t Millie Jackson we’re talking about. Rather, Meg is upfront, frank and meticulous about every-

thing she has and wants—not just sex. As heard on such past tracks as “Big Ole Freak” and her new album’s slipperiest cut, “Savage,” she wants it all, and she wants it hard. After calling herself “a ’hood Mona Lisa,” claiming herself as “way too exclusive, I don’t shop on Insta’ boutiques,” and giving her lady parts the loveliest of descriptions, Stallion kicks into the catchiest, most direct, declaration of the self, to go with a short-and-sweet anthem of a chorus:

“I’m a savage / Classy, bougie, ratchet / Sassy, moody, nasty / Acting stupid, what’s happening?” That Meg is fantastically unique at setting up records with a theatrical flourish and making viral catchphrases is a talent not to be taken lightly considering how even and un-dramatic many hip-hop and pop hits have been since 2018. Megan Thee Stallion has a way of finding the histrionic within the deceptively simple. And on this newest album, she moves mountains, whether it’s her tight, tautly percussive brand of hip hop or on songs that find her drifting into nu-vibe of atmospheric R&B. n