Single Review: Summer Royalty

Introducing her upcoming second EP, Summerland, Jessica Leigh’s new single Summer Royalty paints a picture of a white-hot seasonal romance.

The track is a road trip anthem produced by Leigh’s long-time musical collaborator, Jules Evans. It features an eclectic array of instruments, blending real-world sounds of acoustic guitars and bold horns with storming electronic percussion and creatively filtered vocals. Evans and Leigh give the track an excellent sense of movement, with judiciously employed claps and swooping sound effects near the song’s close.

Lorde’s influence on this track is incredibly apparent. Rambunctious lyrics of an adolescent love, where Leigh asks her partner to “be notorious”, or her brief spoken lyric that wild things live in “the seat of this car”, reminisce in the landscape of Lorde’s Pure Heroine, whilst the pulsating pop production and cover art edge into Melodrama territory. For the most part, Leigh holds her own, but the hook of “let me be your queen” is perhaps too directly compared to the iconic Royals.

Where Leigh sets herself apart is her bright, floral visual aesthetics and joyous delivery, colouring the song with a persona that takes pleasure in every moment. As a performer, Leigh brightens the pop landscape of the last few years, which has bubbled over with doomsday lyricism and dark vocals, by instead shamelessly sharing plain and simple joy.