Inside (The Songs)

''Inside (The Songs)'' is a soundtrack album by American musical comedian Bo Burnham. Accompanying the film of the same name, each song was written, produced and edited by Burnham alone during the COVID-19 pandemic. Themes include mental health, the pandemic, and the internet.

''Inside (The Songs)'' reached the top ten in the United States, Canada, Denmark, Ireland, New Zealand, Norway, and the United Kingdom. It was the best-selling American comedy album of the year and was certified Gold in the United States. Additionally, a number of individual songs from the special charted. "All Eyes On Me" became the first comedy song to enter the ''Billboard'' Global 200 charts.

A deluxe edition featuring outtakes and instrumentals was released on June 3, 2022. It followed '' The Inside Outtakes'', an hour-long compilation of unused material from ''Inside'', including new songs and alternate versions of existing songs.

Production and release

''Inside (The Songs)'' accompanies Bo Burnham's film of the same name. Filmed in his guest house in Los Angeles during the COVID-19 pandemic, Burnham produced ''Inside'' by himself—he is credited with the writing, directing, filming and editing. The outtakes for the special say that footage was captured between March 2020 and May 2021. The 90-minute special includes songs, sketches, monologues and clips of Burnham's filming process. Deteriorating mental health, the pandemic, the internet and the absence of an audience are themes throughout ''Inside''.

According to Republic executive Tyler Arnold, he reached out to Burnham a few days after ''Inside''s release, while watching the special, and the album was released a day after the contract was signed. He had been a fan of Burnham's for years and said in August 2021 that he had watched ''Inside'' around 10 times. ''Inside (The Songs)'' was released on June 10, 2022 through Attic Bedroom, Corp., Imperial Records, Ingrooves, and Republic Records. It is Burnham's first special to receive an album release since ''what.'', as ''Make Happy'' was never released as an album.

"FaceTime with My Mom (Tonight)" was released as a music video on Netflix's YouTube channel Netflix Is A Joke, on June 1. Four music videos were posted on Bo Burnham's YouTube channel: "Welcome to the Internet" on June 4, "White Woman's Instagram" on June 10, "All Eyes On Me" on June 16, and "That Funny Feeling" on November 27. The song "How the World Works" and the "Unpaid Intern" song and subsequent sketch were uploaded to Netflix Is A Joke on July 23 and July 25, respectively.

An alternate version of "All Eyes On Me", omitting Burnham's speech, was released as a single on July 2 as "All Eyes On Me (Song Only)"; it is also included as an additional track on an alternate version of the full album. Arnold said that this was done due to fans online requesting a song-only version. On July 20, 2021, the day of billionaire Jeff Bezos' flight to space, and July 21, the songs "Bezos I" and "Bezos II" were played a combined total of 1.7 million times, a rise of 21%. The song garnered widespread usage on the video-based social media TikTok. In September 2021, a physical CD and vinyl copy of the album was announced for a release in December 2021, through Imperial Records and Republic Records. A limited number of CDs were signed.

Track listing

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Certifications

Phoebe Bridgers cover

Phoebe Bridgers performed a song from the special, "That Funny Feeling", with Burnham as part of an unannounced appearance at Largo at the Coronet on August 4, 2021. Following this, she began performing the song as an encore on her 2021 tour for ''Punisher''. On October 1, 2021, Bridgers released a cover of the song on Bandcamp with all proceeds going to Texas abortion funds, in response to Texas' anti-abortion legislation. Three days later, it was released on other streaming services. In its first four days, ''Billboard'' measured that it received 540,000 online streams and 10,800 downloads, placing it at number 2 on its Rock & Alternative Digital Song Sales and Alternative Digital Song Sales charts, and number 4 on the Digital Song Sales survey.

''The Inside Outtakes''

On May 30, 2022, Burnham marked the one-year anniversary of the special by releasing the hour-long ''The Inside Outtakes'' via YouTube. The piece shows behind-the-scenes takes, alternate versions of each song and scene in ''Inside'', and insight into the production process, along with a large number of original songs. The soundtrack for the outtakes was released on June 3, 2022. The special was released on Netflix on August 11, 2022.

Track listing

Charts

''Inside (Deluxe)''

A deluxe album entitled ''Inside (Deluxe)'', containing songs and the score from the original special and the outtakes, was announced with the upload of the outtakes and was released on June 3, 2022. On August 10, 2022, a vinyl edition of the album was announced.

Track listing

The compilation ''Inside (Deluxe)'' is divided into four discs digitally: discs one and two consist of ''Inside (The Songs)'', with Disc 3 containing ''The Inside Outtakes'' and Disc 4 featuring the instrumental scores and interstitials from both specials.

Charts

References

{{Bo Burnham

2021 soundtrack albums
2020s comedy albums
Bo Burnham albums
Republic Records soundtracks
Imperial Records albums
Comedy soundtracks
Albums recorded in a home studio
Albums about the COVID-19 pandemic