--- title: "Big Hug" description: "The 2021 attention inflection point: a post-pandemic alt-pop LP where Scoobert’s weirdness becomes approachable enough for strangers to enter." year: 2021 releaseDate: 2021-10-08 artist: "Scoobert Doobert" artistId: "#scoobert" bandcamp: "https://scoobertdoobert.bandcamp.com/album/big-hug-lp" spotify: "https://open.spotify.com/album/3dW4LbP8381fYkKBdBxiFn" apple: "https://music.apple.com/us/album/big-hug/1585121212" youtube: "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gdo4a4jv2nY" youtubeLabel: "Visualizer" tracks: - { title: "I Live in California", song: i-live-in-california } - { title: "Don't Worry", song: dont-worry } - { title: "Can't Imagine Feeling Better", song: cant-imagine-feeling-better } - { title: "I Love Money", song: i-love-money } - { title: "Kick It in Nirvana", feat: "Malik LovesYall", song: kick-it-in-nirvana } - { title: "I'm an Idiot", song: im-an-idiot } - { title: "Heffalumps and Woozles", song: heffalumps-and-woozles } - { title: "Slow Jam.wav (Stolen Off of Napster)", song: slow-jam-wav-stolen-off-of-napster } - { title: "If I Could Only", song: if-i-could-only } - { title: "Scared to Reunite", song: scared-to-reunite } - { title: "Where Did Our Love Go", cover: true, coverOf: "The Supremes", song: where-did-our-love-go } - { title: "Debby (Extended)", song: debby } - { title: "I See the Monument", feat: "J MESA", song: i-see-the-moment } - { title: "All in the Feeling", feat: "Malik LovesYall", song: all-in-the-feeling } - { title: "Hold Up", feat: "J MESA", song: hold-up } - { title: "Big Hug", song: a-big-hug } press: - outlet: "egoFM ego 42 — Don't Worry at #1" url: "https://www.instagram.com/p/CO52mijKaI2/" date: "2021-05-15" desc: "Don't Worry hit #1 on egoFM's ego 42 weekly chart (↑ from #7); first #1 on a public weekly radio chart for Scoobert Doobert." - outlet: "91X FM — Top 91 of 2021" url: "https://www.91x.com/top-91/top-91-2021/" date: "2021" desc: "Don't Worry ranked #90 on 91X's year-end Top 91 Songs of 2021." - outlet: "91X FM — Loudspeaker Top 5 (April 2021)" url: "https://www.91x.com/loudspeaker/91x-loudspeaker-top-5-for-april-2021/" date: "2021-04" desc: "Tim Pyles Loudspeaker Top 5: Don't Worry at #1 for April 2021." - outlet: "91X FM — studio visit" url: "https://www.instagram.com/p/CUnGAK-ltD9/" date: "2021-10-04" desc: "In the 91X studio with Tim Pyles (@thelocalpyle), days before Big Hug LP release." - outlet: "egoFM — Album der Woche (Big Hug)" url: "https://www.egofm.de/musik/news/scoobert-doobert-big-hug" date: "2021-10-08" desc: "Munich radio Album der Woche release-week feature on the LP — solo multi-instrumentalist arc, Little Hug → Big Hug, and tracks from Don't Worry to Heffalumps and Woozles." - outlet: "Future Hits Radio — Gingerbread House (2021) Edition (Instagram)" url: "https://www.instagram.com/p/ClT63xcj1w4/" date: "2022-11-23" desc: "Lizzie Romain Positive New Music Releases · 7pm · Scoobert among thirteen UK emerging artists." - outlet: "San Diego Reader" url: "https://www.sandiegoreader.com/albums/big-hug/" desc: "Follow-up to Little Hug; on giving listeners a big hug after fear, awkwardness, and reemergence." - outlet: "Mundane Magazine" url: "https://mundanemag.com/scoobert-doobert-releases-full-length-big-hug-on-beformer-records/" desc: "Release feature on Beformer; mixing, approachability, and meeting “this moment” as people left isolation." - outlet: "UNXIGNED" url: "https://www.unxigned.com/reviews/track-reviews/scoobert-doobert-im-an-idiot/" date: "2021-09" desc: "On “I’m an Idiot” ahead of the LP: self-deprecation as freedom, not just confession." - outlet: "Glasse Factory" url: "https://glassefactory.com/scoobert-dooberts-new-track-think-about-it-is-experimental-funk-at-its-finest/" desc: "Artist note: sixth record, trying to give listeners a big hug; later SDMA nomination for Best R&B, Funk or Soul Album." - outlet: "egoFM: Privataudienz (hosted guest hour)" url: "https://www.egofm.de/radiowelt/die-egofm-privataudienz" desc: "Scoobert Doobert hosted and curated ~25 min guest hour on Munich radio; Slow Jam.wav in published tracklist." draft: false --- *Big Hug* is the attention inflection point. Not because Scoobert abandons the weirdness, but because the weirdness finally becomes approachable enough for strangers to enter. Sixth in the public run, after [*Little Hug*](/albums/little-hug/): the seed was small; this is the full therapeutic statement. [*Finding $D*](/albums/finding-d-remastered/) is the lab notebook. [*Swami's*](/albums/wami/) is the lore dump. [*Dragon Ball $d*](/albums/dragon-ball-d/) is the narrative hip-hopera. [*Masks and Monsters*](/albums/masks-and-monsters/) is the pandemic record. [*Little Hug*](/albums/little-hug/) is the small recovery object. **Big Hug** is the accessible thesis: anxious little apes, but the groove still works, the jokes still help, and life is better when somebody gives you a big hug. [Bandcamp *Big Hug (LP)*](https://scoobertdoobert.bandcamp.com/album/big-hug-lp) dropped **October 8, 2021** ($8 or more, 24-bit/88.2kHz). Sixteen songs, about forty-four minutes, on [Spotify](https://open.spotify.com/album/3dW4LbP8381fYkKBdBxiFn), [Apple Music](https://music.apple.com/us/album/big-hug/1585121212), and a [YouTube visualizer](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gdo4a4jv2nY), ℗ 2021 Beformer. The earlier records mostly have visual albums (long music videos); *Big Hug* has a visualizer instead. Luke Francis Walton wrote, arranged, recorded, mixed, and produced most of it holistically; **J MESA** (Babidi / Taylor James) co-wrote [*I See the Moment*](/songs/i-see-the-moment/) (Bandcamp: *I See the Monument*) and [*Hold Up*](/songs/hold-up/); **Malik LovesYall** co-wrote [*All in the Feeling*](/songs/all-in-the-feeling/) and appears on [*Kick It in Nirvana*](/songs/kick-it-in-nirvana/). Pro Tools almost like the main instrument. Most songs came together in a few intense days, same fast-DIY lineage as *Finding $D*, but with a much better toolkit. [Mundane Magazine](https://mundanemag.com/scoobert-doobert-releases-full-length-big-hug-on-beformer-records/) quotes him on the shift: the mixing no longer "sucks," the music more approachable, bass central. Still self-produced bedroom pop, but legible without becoming normal. The public framing is clear. [San Diego Reader](https://www.sandiegoreader.com/albums/big-hug/) and Mundane both describe it as the follow-up to *Little Hug*, aimed at people emerging from caves full of fear and social awkwardness. *Can't Imagine Feeling Better*, *If I Could Only*, and [*Debby (Extended)*](/songs/debby/) (same song as the EP: adds a guitar solo) carry material forward from the EP. Track 13 is **I See the Monument** on [Bandcamp](https://scoobertdoobert.bandcamp.com/album/big-hug-lp); some distributor metadata (DistroKid, [MusicBrainz](https://musicbrainz.org/artist/014129ba-f616-4754-a2a5-22933c639ab0)) lists the same song as “I See the Moment.” This site follows Bandcamp. *I'm an Idiot*, *Don't Worry*, [*Scared to Reunite*](/songs/scared-to-reunite/), *Where Did Our Love Go*, *All in the Feeling*, and the title track all point at the same post-pandemic problem: how to be a person again without pretending you aren't scared, dumb, lonely, self-conscious, or weird. Heffalumps, Napster jokes, California mythology: still cartoon shell, but now a softening device, not just camouflage. *I'm an Idiot* landed on Spotify's New Music Friday around release; [UNXIGNED](https://www.unxigned.com/reviews/track-reviews/scoobert-doobert-im-an-idiot/) caught the single in September 2021. Munich's [egoFM](https://www.egofm.de/musik/news/scoobert-doobert-big-hug) named *Big Hug* **Album der Woche** for release week (**October 8, 2021**). [Glasse Factory](https://glassefactory.com/scoobert-dooberts-new-track-think-about-it-is-experimental-funk-at-its-finest/) later notes a San Diego Music Awards nomination for Best R&B, Funk or Soul Album. The breakout hinge: not mainstream arrival, but the first record where the catalog clearly starts reaching beyond the self-contained Scoobertverse. What comes next is [*KŌAN*](/albums/koan/): paradox, Japan, spatial sound, and post-breakout range.