---
title: "the cycle"

meaning: "The loop nobody escapes cleanly: carry everyone's weight, pass hurt downward, feel better: smile, shake it off, try not think too much."

year: 2024
release: "I"
releaseType: "album"

artist: "Scoobert Doobert"
artistId: "#scoobert"

credits: "Written, performed, and mixed by Luke Francis Walton. Mastered by Riley Knapp. Artwork by Grizzard Graphics."

apple: "https://music.apple.com/us/album/the-cycle/1734387671?i=1734387674"
spotify: "https://open.spotify.com/album/2O9X06yNiwLSJbL8MLGC49"

themes: ["cycle", "harm", "coping", "I", "Möbius"]

isrc: QZFYZ2461802
isrcSource: soundexchange
lyrics: |
  Everybody's got their
  Own shit they're dealing with
  My own burden carrying
  The weight of everybody
  Pressing on my shoulder
  Get older then I'll be
  Hurting people
  Below me

  And feeling so much better
  The cycle goes on and on
  Is that a little repetitious?
  Well welcome to my life
  Yes, i'm being dramatic
  But a retrograde's to blame
  No I don't really believe it
  But I like a good excuse
  A timeline to get better
  A reason for abuse
  Smile shake it off
  Smile have a drink
  Smile try not think too much

  Everybody's got their
  Own shit they're dealing with
  My own burden carrying
  The weight of everybody
  Pressing on my shoulder
  Get older then I'll be
  Hurting people
  Below me
  And feeling so much better
  The cycle goes on and on
  And on and on and on and on and on
  And on and on and on and on
  The cycle goes on and on
  And on

  Smile shake it off
  Smile have a drink
  Smile try not think too much
  Try not think too much
  Try not think too much

draft: false

---

Track three on [*I*](/albums/i/), the album's sharpest honesty about **cycles**. The title echoes the planned **Möbius** architecture (MÖB, I, US, MÖBIUS), but here the cycle is personal and ugly, not mythic. The confession is that pain rolls downhill: *get older then I'll be hurting people below me / and feeling so much better*. It isn't an endorsement, just a naming, and the song knows it's posturing too. Mercury retrograde becomes an excuse you don't fully believe, *a reason for abuse*, and the coping stack (*smile shake it off / smile have a drink*) repeats until repetitious becomes the point.

On an LP mostly about *u*, travel, and tenderness, this is the crack where the singer admits how harm propagates and how easy it is to numb past it. It sits after [*daydreaming*](/songs/daydreaming/) and before [*ez pz*](/songs/ez-pz/); neither solves the loop, they alternate with it.

[**Lou Roy**](/with/lou-roy/), background vocals.

---