ALBUM REVIEW – THE BIG MOON: FOREVER

Posted by Seren Catherall-Jones on Friday, October 30, 2026

Four years after Here Is Everything, London indie-rock four-piece The Big Moon return with their fourth studio album, Forever. Fronted by Juliette Jackson, alongside Soph Nathan, Celia Archer and Fern Ford, the band have built a reputation for pairing infectious guitar-driven melodies with emotionally candid songwriting. Drawing on influences ranging from Pixies to David Bowie, their sound has continually evolved without ever losing its melodic instincts. This time, however, the band’s familiar energy takes on a brighter, more expansive pop sensibility, as Forever explores love, mortality, and the peculiar beauty of simply being alive.

Since their Mercury Prize-nominated debut, Love in the 4th Dimension (2017), The Big Moon have undergone a considerable musical evolution. The energetic guitars and garage-rock influences were established in their early identity, before Walking Like We Do (2020) introduced synths, keyboards, and more atmospheric arrangements. Their third album, Here is Everything (2022), turned inward, documenting Jackson’s experiences of pregnancy and motherhood against the backdrop of the pandemic. Forever feels like a natural continuation of that personal songwriting, although its perspective has shifted. Rather than concentrating on life’s major milestones, it finds meaning in the moments that happen in between.

The album opens with Gravity, a wonderfully buoyant introduction that captures the sensation of being pulled towards someone you love. Inspired by Jackson’s son running into her arms after nursery, its central metaphor of love as an elasticated force establishes the record’s preoccupation with connection and impermanence. Three Things and Fun maintain this infectious momentum, bringing together bright hooks and energetic arrangements that make the album feel almost effortlessly summery. Beneath their immediate accessibility, though, sits a persistent awareness of time passing and the impossibility of holding onto every moment.

The title track, F.O.R.E.V.E.R, continues this balancing act, embracing the romanticism of stability while acknowledging its unattainability. There is something particularly affecting about the band’s ability to make such an existential question feel so inviting. Sounds introduces a more vulnerable dimension, with Jackson’s experience of permanent hearing loss following a cholesteatoma diagnosis in 2024 informing the album’s exploration of identity and the things we take for granted. The diagnosis threatened not only her physical relationship with music but also her understanding of herself as a songwriter. That vulnerability becomes even more apparent in You Remind Me That I’m Dying (and that it’s good to be alive), whose extraordinary title encapsulates the album’s central philosophy. Mortality is not presented as something to retreat from, but as a reminder to embrace the time we have.

Speed Bump brings a sense of forward momentum to the record, reflecting the unexpected obstacles and uncertainties that inevitably interrupt our plans. Rather than allowing these moments to derail its optimism, the album continues to find ways of moving forward. Can I Get A Reading Please adds another layer to this search for direction, playing with the desire for reassurance when the future feels impossible to predict. I See You, Honey offers a particularly warm moment of affection and reassurance, bringing the focus back to the comfort of human connection. There’s something in this song that really stays with you. Amid the album’s reflections on change and the uncertainty of what comes next, it feels like a reminder of how much comfort can be found in simply being seen and understood by someone else. By the time closer Chill arrives, the album settles into a more reflective mood, allowing its brighter moments to linger while providing a gentle conclusion to an otherwise exuberant collection of songs.

What makes Forever especially compelling is its refusal to mistake optimism for naivety. These are songs written in the shadow of genuine uncertainty, yet they consistently reach towards something brighter. Jackson’s decision to write towards an imagined future in which she was healed and happy becomes an unexpectedly powerful creative exercise, transforming personal difficulty into something generous and universal.

Across ten tracks, The Big Moon delivers a record that feels simultaneously celebratory and bittersweet. Forever recognises that happiness is rarely permanent, but perhaps that is precisely what makes it worth pursuing. It is an album about making the most of the ordinary, loving people fiercely and finding reasons to keep going, even when the future remains uncertain. Sometimes, that is enough.

The Big Moon – Forever, out now!

(Fiction Records)

Watch The Big Moon’s Gravity music video now:

” frameborder=”0″ allowfullscreen>The Big Moon – Gravity (Official)