Bo Burnham - Inside ALBUM REVIEW
Something feels… off.
Alright, there’s gonna have to be a disclaimer with this one: I haven’t seen Inside. Oddly enough, I might be one of the only people in my age range that doesn’t have Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime, Roku, or whatever fits under that category. Except for Disney+, we MCU fans have been eating recently. Why do I say this? Well, again in my age range, Bo Burnham is a bit of an icon. He started on YouTube and jumped to stand-up comedy, where he only grew. After a bout with anxiety, he disappeared from live performances for a while. In that time, he wrote and directed a fantastic movie called Eighth Grade, directed Chris Rock’s most recent stand-up special, and starred in a critically acclaimed movie, Promising Young Woman. Now, he returns to what made him a superstar with Inside, a Netflix special that was created entirely by Burnham during the beginning of the pandemic. Everything was done by him: writing, direction, lighting, cinematography, editing, etc. All of it. Especially the music. The question that comes up with this for me, though, is this: Can this function outside of its visuals? Let’s get into Inside and see if it can.
This is certainly an album outside of my comfort zone, mainly because this is being categorized as a comedy album on streaming services. Let me tell you that while this is funny in most of the songs, this is not a comedy. Most of the content here is very dark, depressive, and incredibly pessimistic. Lyrically, Burnham takes on some big topics like suicide and self-hatred with a surprising amount of wit and intelligence that isn’t shown by a lot of people. There are so many lyrical gems throughout this album that it’s very tough to point out every single one. If I had to highlight three songs out of this project simply for the lyrics, I’d have to choose “That Funny Feeling,” “Welcome to the Internet,” and “Goodbye,” which was the first song this year that just made me sob. That song’s genuinely gorgeous. Musically, outside of a ‘comedy’ album, it’s more of a singer-songwriter album, along with some musical theater, synthpop, alternative R&B, and even a bit of new age in there too. It’s a pleasantly surprising treat that I really didn’t expect.
It’s pretty crazy that a ‘comedy’ album is an unironic contender for my favorite album of the year, even without actually seeing the special that’s accompanied by it. Inside is an album that only comes around once in a lifetime. At the beginning of this review, I raised the question of the music being able to stand on its own as a concept outside of its Netflix counterpart. I can confidently say that it does 100%. There’s a rumor going around that this is going to be Bo Burnham’s final special, and if it is, wow. This is a genuinely funny, painfully heartbreaking, and disturbingly relatable look at pandemic life that won’t be reached for a very long time, if ever. Damn.
10/10
Listen here
YouTube Music
Inside is self-released.
Alright, there’s gonna have to be a disclaimer with this one: I haven’t seen Inside. Oddly enough, I might be one of the only people in my age range that doesn’t have Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime, Roku, or whatever fits under that category. Except for Disney+, we MCU fans have been eating recently. Why do I say this? Well, again in my age range, Bo Burnham is a bit of an icon. He started on YouTube and jumped to stand-up comedy, where he only grew. After a bout with anxiety, he disappeared from live performances for a while. In that time, he wrote and directed a fantastic movie called Eighth Grade, directed Chris Rock’s most recent stand-up special, and starred in a critically acclaimed movie, Promising Young Woman. Now, he returns to what made him a superstar with Inside, a Netflix special that was created entirely by Burnham during the beginning of the pandemic. Everything was done by him: writing, direction, lighting, cinematography, editing, etc. All of it. Especially the music. The question that comes up with this for me, though, is this: Can this function outside of its visuals? Let’s get into Inside and see if it can.
This is certainly an album outside of my comfort zone, mainly because this is being categorized as a comedy album on streaming services. Let me tell you that while this is funny in most of the songs, this is not a comedy. Most of the content here is very dark, depressive, and incredibly pessimistic. Lyrically, Burnham takes on some big topics like suicide and self-hatred with a surprising amount of wit and intelligence that isn’t shown by a lot of people. There are so many lyrical gems throughout this album that it’s very tough to point out every single one. If I had to highlight three songs out of this project simply for the lyrics, I’d have to choose “That Funny Feeling,” “Welcome to the Internet,” and “Goodbye,” which was the first song this year that just made me sob. That song’s genuinely gorgeous. Musically, outside of a ‘comedy’ album, it’s more of a singer-songwriter album, along with some musical theater, synthpop, alternative R&B, and even a bit of new age in there too. It’s a pleasantly surprising treat that I really didn’t expect.
It’s pretty crazy that a ‘comedy’ album is an unironic contender for my favorite album of the year, even without actually seeing the special that’s accompanied by it. Inside is an album that only comes around once in a lifetime. At the beginning of this review, I raised the question of the music being able to stand on its own as a concept outside of its Netflix counterpart. I can confidently say that it does 100%. There’s a rumor going around that this is going to be Bo Burnham’s final special, and if it is, wow. This is a genuinely funny, painfully heartbreaking, and disturbingly relatable look at pandemic life that won’t be reached for a very long time, if ever. Damn.
10/10
Listen here
YouTube Music
Inside is self-released.
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