Jacob Collier
English multi-instrumentalist reimagines The Beach Boys’ “Keep an Eye on Summer” in first new single of 2025
Jacob Collier isn’t exactly the type of artist you expect to go small, the 30-year-old London native has built his career on symphonic pop experiments, impossible vocal stacks, world tours that feel like church revivals. He’s conducted orchestras, jammed with Coldplay in stadiums, pulled thousands of strangers into community choirs, and even staged an Arctic performance on a drifting iceberg with AURORA.
But for his first new release of 2025, Collier has chosen the opposite route: a hushed, intimate cover of The Beach Boys’ “Keep an Eye on Summer.”
The song, a little-known gem from Brian Wilson’s 1964 catalogue, gets the Collier treatment not through maximalist reinvention, but by stripping it bare. Recorded alone in his London home on his signature five-string Taylor guitar, Collier’s version leans into melancholy harmonies and fragile textures. It’s a striking contrast to the stadium-filling density of his recent Djesse Vol. 4 and feels closer in spirit to his acoustic ballad “The Sun Is in Your Eyes.”
The release arrives with a visual twist too: a hand-drawn video by illustrator David Pogron, whose dreamlike style frames Collier’s interpretation in watercolor nostalgia.
Collier’s cover of “Keep an Eye on Summer” lands amid a whirlwind year for the genre-bending musician. In 2025 alone, he’s picked up his second Album of the Year nomination, honored his late mentor Quincy Jones during the Grammy telecast, and headlined London’s O2 Arena. He’s also performed atop an Arctic iceberg with AURORA and Greenpeace, conducted the National Symphony Orchestra in a fully improvised piece, and somehow found time to stage his first-ever Hideaway Retreat in Tarrytown, New York — a four-day creative summit featuring Dirty Projectors’ David Longstreth, Dodie, Chris Thile, Emily Lazar, Taylor Guitars’ Andy Powers, and his mother, conductor Suzie Collier.
The single also comes in the middle of Collier’s globe-spanning Djesse World Tour, which stretches across six continents and blends solo performances, orchestral collaborations, and full-band shows. Later this year, he’ll take the stage in South America, Asia, Australia, and the U.S.
For an artist who has collaborated with everyone from Joni Mitchell and Coldplay to SZA and Hans Zimmer, Collier continues to redefine what a modern musician can be — conductor, producer, songwriter, educator, choir leader, and global connector.
Listen to the track here and check out Collier’s upcoming tour dates at jacobcollier.com/tour.
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