About a month ago, Jeon Somi released the underdeveloped Extra, which turned out to be a pre-release for her new mini album. This is only her second mini album in seven years, and third album overall. The pace may be glacial, but it’s nice to finally hear something more substantial from her. Closer acts as the album’s title track and pulls her further into evocative dance territory.
Closer has a stuttering, atmospheric appeal that unfolds in a different way than most K-pop tracks. At just over two and a half minutes in length, there’s not proper time for the song to deliver the sense of build and release it wants (and needs) to, but there are some interesting ingredients forging this song sketch. Closer spends almost half of its running time slowly building up to its central beat drop — an approach that would have worked better on a longer song. Once we hit that chorus, the song hits us with a hypnotic hook that interpolates Ben E King’s classic Stand By Me (or more accurately, Sean Kingston’s King-interpolating Beautiful Girls), immediately followed by a shout-chant punctuation. It’s very moody and engaging, but we only have about half a song here.
Before you know it, Closer suddenly cuts off without delivering the payoff promised by all its sonic foreplay. I understand the desire for short songs in our streaming/TikTok generation and this is why so much current pop music is flat and vibes driven. You can get away with two minutes of monotony that never promises anything more, but a brief runtime actively sabotages a track like Closer and robs it of the exact qualities that make it good. It’s so frustrating because this could have easily been an addictive, cyclically-structured banger in the legacy of miss A’s Touch but its financial pursuits clearly outweigh its artistry.
| Hooks | 8 |
| Production | 9 |
| Longevity | 7 |
| Bias | 8 |
| RATING | 8 |
