Review: Ben Cardilli, The Great Indoors

We've reached the spot in the darkest timeline where comedians are now making full COVID-19-themed musical concept albums. In this specific case it's Montreal comedian/producer/musician Ben Cardilli's The Great Indoors, an 11-track stages-of-grief exploration of being stuck inside indefinitely with nothing to do.

Cardilli pings a lot of familiar topics: "Friday Night In" recounts the unexpected benefits (hint, sex) of being trapped inside with a partner, the suitably electro-groovy "Robot Friends" contemplates our relationship to technological devices, and the near-final track "The Joke's on Us" lands on the harsh truth — this whole scenario really sucks.

As far as COVID comic music goes, it's not quite as penetrating the recent "I Want To Drink In A Bar" split with B.A. Johnston & The Burning Hell. And while Cardilli jumps competently from techno to hair metal to grunge and all points between, it's not chasing a new sound like, say, the music of The Mighty Boosh. Where Cardilli does succeed is in creating songs that feel perfectly suited to inhabit pre-tape segments for late-night talk shows. It's fitting, then, that he's created a number of appropriately home-bound videos for these songs illustrating exactly what his quarantine experience is looking like. Those are probably the best way to consider Cardilli's indoors.

The Great Indoors was released July 9, 2020.
Listen to it here.

Get it while its hot! (but wear gloves!)