Stream Bo Burnham’s New Soundtrack Album Inside (The Songs)

Stream Bo Burnham’s New Soundtrack Album Inside (The Songs)

A week and a half ago, Netflix released Bo Burnham’s new comedy special Inside, which Burnham worked on for a solid year of pandemic time. Burnham’s anxiety caused him to leave stand-up comedy behind a few years ago, and Inside represents a sort-of return. Burnham made the special himself, filming his own stuff in a single room in his house; nobody else appears onscreen. Inside is one of those deconstructionist comedy situations — a meditation on loneliness and pessimism and ego and the kind of derangement that comes from spending too much time on the internet. Burnham’s big trick as a comic was always his ability to make up goofy songs, and songs are all over Inside. Today, those songs have become an album.

Burnham only announced yesterday that Inside would become a streaming album, but now that album is already out. These songs are obviously intended to be experienced in the context of the special itself, not to work as standalone musical moments. The real appeal of Inside (The Album) is that it lets you hear those songs again — to let you throw them on when you’re driving to the supermarket or whatever. And the songs generally do work on their own.

Inside seems to be a love-it-or-hate-it proposition; I know plenty of people who only made it a few minutes into the special. But I liked the special, and I like the songs. “Bezos I,” in particular, is a banger. Stream Inside (The Songs) below.

Inside is streaming on Netflix now.

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