Local Review: leetham — A Night in Hollywood

leetham
A Night in Hollywood
Self-Released
Streets: 10.22.2025
Leetham = Panic! at the Disco’s Death of a Bachelor + nightlife

leetham’s A Night in Hollywood delivers just what it promises: a night through the city of stars. It is a place where one’s dreams of fame and fortune are always within one’s reach — at least, that is how they want to make it seem. Deep within the glitz, glamour and indulgence exists a well of mental anguish full of regrets and loss. Once you fall in, all you can do is try to numb the pain or retreat into your dreams even further. The EP creates a dreamlike atmosphere that leads us through, for lack of a better word, “a night in Hollywood.”

The infectious, poppy tracklist straps you in for the journey we are about to embark on, but it isn’t one that makes you brace yourself and reach for the grab handle. Instead it asks you to lay back and maybe reflect on all the grandiose promises that the city has made to you as you look out the window and watch the neon lit underbelly of the Hollywood Boulevard pass you by. It feels incredibly honest, yet detached — the lyrics are detached from the production and vocal performance. Each song feels like leetham is reliving and reflecting on a long-gone memory.

The first track, “Hollywood,” featuring Jaxon Keller, fully encapsulates the vibe of the EP. It starts off with a distorted guitar strumming that remains prominent throughout the song accompanied by a soft percussive beat, creating an almost melancholic, beachy vibe. leetham describes a distant fascination with the Hollywood lifestyle, singing, “Anything goes in Hollywood / Anything goes out here” while simultaneously pointing out the vapid artificiality of it all: “Love on film / Crazy how it operates/ Synthetic love, their all on drugs / Cut then roll the tape.” You almost fall into a flow before the song blasts you with Keller’s grungy, jagged outro, spewing the truth and waking you from a trance: “Sex, drugs, nepotism / Daddy’s rich, I wanna kiss him / It’s all a game.”

The next two tracks, “Lost My Head” and “Hot Box,” feel a lot more internal. “Lost My Head” has a head-bopping synth beat that keeps you engaged throughout the song. Like the title, the song explores this feeling of confusion and depression that ultimately leaves you with a feeling of isolation. As the singer despairs at the state their anxiety has left them in, the music ramps up with sparkling synths and leetham’s wails coming to a climax and fading out. Meanwhile, “Hot Box” feels like the fallout from the catharsis. A simple song about love and connection, “Hot Box” paints an intimate image of two people in a car having the time of their life driving through the Hollywood nightlife, sunroof down and taking in all the sights.

leetham definitely saved the best for last with “Insomniacs Lullaby.” Starting with some techno bursts that set up the upbeat mood, it is then followed by an energizing synth beat that makes you want to get up and run through the city streets, like at the end of some indie coming-of-age film. It’s a song about the temptation of falling into one’s dreams. There is a sense of wanting to avoid the dreams at the beginning, like it’s almost painful to do so because they bring back memories of someone who is no longer around: “I wonder if you dream about me too/ Cause all I ever think about is you.” There’s a sense of wanting to reach out while simultaneously letting go, and isn’t that the feelings dreams leave us with once we wake?

A Night in Hollywood is a fun, breezy listen that offers a lot to dig into. It’s the perfect EP to put on during a quiet night drive as you try to forget the drudgery of life, but also reflect on what makes it worthwhile. —Angela Garcia

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