Inside

That’s it, I’m putting the albums I recorded during lockdown up on bandcamp.

As a big Bo fan this special really threw me for a loop when it dropped right in the middle of COVID malaise. There's always been a bubbling undercurrent of depression/mental health and the interplay between performer and audience in Burnham's work, but the isolation of the pandemic threw those themes into the very center of the work in an unsettling way. Musically, this is some of Bo's best writing – even the little interludes contain amazing accompaniments and great melodies. Some bits feel a tad unnecessary or scattered, but overall the LP serves as a damning encapsulation of struggles with mortality, isolation, and mindless consumption as artistic death. If this is your first listen sans the video component of the special I can get why you would dislike this, but I'm thankful that this performance was so music-heavy that it translates near-effortlessly to audio only. Worthwhile add for sure, one of the only comedy LPs (save for Weird Al but that feels different) that could justifiably be on the list.

This album is definitely of a specific time (the pandemic of the early 2020s). I’m not sure if being outside of that time changes the way I hear this, or that it was originally part of videos that I have not seen, but I didn’t connect well with this. I really enjoyed writer/director Bo Burnham’s Eighth Grade, so I had high hopes for this. It wasn’t completely without merit but for me there are other parody song artists that should be on this list well before this. There were of course clever moments, and for a guy making music alone in his house it isn’t bad. But the reasons to listen to this don’t really match with the reasons to be on a list like this for me.

A bit nothingy really. I'd not heard of this before and it's already dated. It's less an album of music and more a gimmick or platform for another media.

Hell yeah 5

When Inside came out on Netflix, it was clearly a masterpiece. However, it is as much a visual experience as it is in the words of the story. The songs are still good and funny. The vocals crisp clear (as it should for a comedy album, you have to be able to follow along well). But I feel that by audio only, I'm missing something.

It's interesting to evaluate this album in isolation from the video. Some of the songs feel a little cloying without the visual input that Bo provides. It's still good, but I would certainly go for the video version rather than the album if I had my druthers 4/5

Comedy, synth-pop. Ni fu ni fa.

I love a comedy album probably more than most. But I think I am too old for this to connect with me, not because of the content but because I’ve heard it done before (and perhaps a little better, I’m sorry) But of this was the first comedy album I ‘d ever heard I would probably like it more.

Great social commentary

I remember the hype this got when it came Out on Netflix. I couldn’t manage to watch the whole show, musical comedy just isn’t my thing. Listening back I got a few laughs to this, and white girls instagram is very funny. But it gets tiresome quick, so don’t think I’d have it on my list.

I had to do a lot of thinking on this one. I love this "album", but it probably doesn't belong on this list. The video version belongs on some kind of list that probably doesn't exist, but not here. Bo is closer to a stand-up comedian than he is to someone like Weird Al. It's a comedy album that happens to feature music. It's like a 3/4 on the comedy scale in current context, but an easy 5 in the context of it's release. But musically, Bo basically produces jingle-quality music, which suits the comedy really well, with the occasional solid banger. If it wasn't for the comedy, this would be a 2, so that's where I'm leaving it. As a "thing" easy 4 maybe a 5, as an "album" solid 2.

Neither funny nor musically good, threw in the towel (with utmost contempt) after only 10 minutes.

self hating white people are pretty dull