Review
Genre and Mood
Lemaitre and Jennie A. made Closer a piece of bright indie electronic pop with one foot on the dance floor. It is uplifting in the plain sense, built from cheerful, bouncing parts, and dreamy in its voice, which floats above them instead of pushing.
Song Summary
When Stereogum wrote about the single in January 2016, it named the three things that make it: a sprightly piano line, a brash horn-driven hook and the floaty vocals of the Swedish singer Jennie A. That contrast is the design of the song. The instruments are punchy; the voice is light and airy, and the title invites the listener in rather than demanding attention. The version on the album Chapter One runs about four and a half minutes, while the official video, released in 2015, uses a shorter cut.
Musical Breakdown
Verse 1
The verses belong to Jennie A.’s floaty voice, set over the sprightly piano line that keeps the song moving.
Chorus
The horns take over the hook. They are brash where the voice is gentle, and that answer is what makes the chorus stick.
Concepts in Focus
Jennie A. is the <a href=“https://korczis.github.io/sonic-playground/concept/featured-artist/” class=“concept-link font-medium text-primary-700 underline decoration-dotted underline-offset-4 hover:decoration-solid dark:text-primary-400” data-concept=“featured-artist” title=“A guest performer credited on another artist’s track, usually as “feat.”: a rapper’s verse, a singer’s hook or a second voice. Features bring together different styles and audiences and are central to hip-hop, R&B and dance music.“>featured artist here, and the credit undersells her role: Lemaitre are two producers, and her voice is what turns their track into a song. A feature lets a production duo change colour from one single to the next, and her airy delivery is the dreamy half of this one.
The hook is instrumental. Stereogum heard it as horn-driven, and that is typical of dance-leaning pop, where the line you remember is often played rather than sung. The voice sets the mood; the horns make the song recognisable within seconds.
Closer also shows what a soundtrack placement can do. On 4 October 2016 it played in Google’s launch film for the Pixel phone, and it was used in the first episode of the Norwegian teen drama Skam, two very different audiences reached without radio. Compare the piano-led, melodic dance pop of another Norwegian hit of 2015, Kygo, Maty Noyes – Stay.
Artistic Context
Lemaitre are Ketil Jansen Ditlev-Simonsen and Ulrik Denizou Lund, an indie electronic duo from Oslo who formed in 2010 and named themselves after Georges Lemaître, the Belgian priest who first proposed the Big Bang theory. In January 2014 they signed to Astralwerks, home of Daft Punk and The Chemical Brothers, whom they counted among their heroes. Closer first appeared in 2015 and became the lead single of the 1749 EP, released on 29 January 2016 by Astralwerks in the US and Universal in the UK. The EP was named after the Los Angeles house where they lived and worked. The song then moved to their first album, Chapter One, released on 2 June 2017.
Impact and Reception
Beyond the Pixel film and Skam, Closer turned up on French hit compilations such as 55 Hits rentrée 2016 and M6 Hits 2017, a sign of how far a single from an Oslo duo travelled. It is here for its lightness and its horns. Play it on a bright morning and listen to the horns answer the voice.
