London-based four-piece climb to new heights with their best album to date. Album releases post-pandemic can be a curious thing. It feels a lot of artists were forced back to the drawing board. Tours were cancelled, and records due for release were shelved rather than on shelves. However, for The Big Moon, it would seem that going back to basics was a genius move.
Here Is Everything serves as a love letter to lead singer and principal songwriter Juliet Jackson’s pregnancy and subsequent birth to her child. Jackson might have started lockdown teaching fans how to play the guitar on Zoom to help pay the rent, but she ended it as a mother to a super little human being.
The album is also an ode to friendship and survival; it soars on tracks such as “Wide Eyes”, a song that genuinely made me stop in my stride and listen to it intently when it was first released. “I want to dance, and I want to cry”, sings Jackson; if you’ve been a parent, it is a refrain you can relate to. That excitement is fuelled with fear and elation; it is some cocktail of emotion, and this song describes that feeling perfectly.
“This Love” has a wonderful early 80′s R.E.M feel to it, guitars chiming in the background; the song feels incredibly warm, as does “Suckerpunch”, a song laden with beautiful harmonies and a driving beat. This one is absolutely going off live.
“Trouble” has one of those sing-a-long choruses that get you hooked, “never thought love would be like fear, I’m scared for everyone I hold dear” is such a brilliant lyric. That fine line between two fierce emotions blossoming in a wonderful song has to be one of my favourites of the year.
The pandemic hit just after Walking Like We Do, the band’s sophomore album, was released, and threw their plans up in the air. Taking your time isn’t always a bad thing, though; it feels like the third record was a labour (in one case quite literally) of love. It ends with the stunning piano-led “Satellites”, a joyous song about the realisation of parenting being on the horizon and how your whole world changes and becomes mapped out. It closes as it started, with a gentle piano line to take us home.
Releasing a third album can be quite a daunting thing. You’ve had all your life to release your first, and if successful, you’ll ride that crest of a wave into album number two. It is often the third that becomes a matter of sink or swim. I’m happy to say that Here Is Everything not only swims, but it also gets an Olympic gold medal for the butterfly. You should dive in.
8/10
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