Recorded December, 2020.

All songs on COVID-19 written by Randy Newman.

Original Facebook post test:

Big news - I released 19 albums today! Link in comments. Why 19 albums? Warning: long post alert!

Honestly, my lack of creativity this year has been making me feel overwhelmingly anxious. When your entire life comes to a halt, finding inspiration is a challenge. Lots of artists are dealing with these emotions. We have all this time to sit around and face difficult questions - What's the point of doing anything? Does my life have meaning? Does anything have inherent meaning? Facing these questions could force us to look inwardly and come to terms with our place in the universe.

This is difficult to do and not recommended.

Distracting ourselves is far more convenient and the best way to do that is to create for the sake of validation. Whereas creating purely for personal edification is a meaningless waste of time, doing so out of obligation to others gives you a fabricated purpose, eschewing any existential quandaries. However, without being able to tirelessly promote late weeknight gigs that charge at least a two drink minimum or post 20-second-long videos from a control booth during recording sessions funded by an ambitious Kickstarter that only got completed due to a generous donation from your rich parents, there is no reason to produce content. How do we, as artists, navigate this landscape to avoid existential dread?

Let's face it. 2020 has been a hard year. As it comes to an end, we have to remember that every cloud has a silver lining. You need to look for it, even if that cloud stretches beyond all horizons, enclosing our planet's atmosphere in a shroud of unprecedented darkness with no discernible lining whatsoever. Forced optimism has been a detrimental tool to maintain sanity for so many people. Desperately searching for the good in an overwhelmingly bad situation keeps us comfortably suspended in our ignorant state of existential immaturity – otherwise we might realize that sometimes life can be unjustifiably tragic and, ultimately, has no reason altogether. That sure would be depressing.

I've seen many brave artists pushing this realization aside. Here are the things I see that make me hopeful:

I see people excreting content for the sake of staying relevant. Although nothing is relevant right now and with the additional consideration that they may not have been relevant in the first place, it encourages me to see people hanging onto the things that made them feel like they had a purpose. Some are even breaking CDC guidelines to share their art with the world. To willingly risk the spread of infection by gathering a bunch of other people to record a music video, consequently jeopardizing public health and prolonging a safe return to normal life for everyone including yourself, takes true commitment to your art.

Most importantly, I see millionaire pop stars, who surely are experiencing the same personal and financial challenges as the rest of us, release new material. Look at Taylor Swift, who released not one, but two albums! That's why I've made “Collection Of Various Inspirational Decrees” a series of 19 albums. More albums means more productivity, which means your life has more meaning. After all, if you're not making the most of every second of your existence, you're wasting time. In an artistic community that romanticizes a direct relationship between stress and success, this is the ultimate sin.

This project is dedicated to my creative friends and to anyone who has been struggling to find meaning during this time - though I understand my message may cater to a Nietzsche market.