The Singles Jukebox

Close enough?

[Video]
[5.14]

Julian Axelrod: I don’t think Ellie Goulding gets enough credit for her voice, which isn’t technically astounding but has an earnest, malleable edge that shines even in her more traditional outings. It’s a perfect foil for Swae Lee, whose verse is all charisma and whose ad-libs are pure energy. Diplo’s backing is solid if familiar, but it mostly serves as a playground for Ellie and Swae’s tumbles and turns. For me, it all comes down to that high note on the titular phrase: a big, aching cry for companionship whose failure to fully connect makes it all the more affecting.
[7]

Taylor Alatorre: This is a very tasteful Pixies/Post Malone mash-up. It seems to luxuriate in how blissfully unoriginal its foundations are. I picture Diplo smirking as he was arranging this, knowing that the dumb proles will bop along to anything with a familiar chord progression if you add enough atmospheric trap effects and distinctive singing voices to it. He knows our weaknesses all too well.
[6]

John Seroff: The once-promising Goulding going through the motions for the nth, watered-down retake on Shimmy Shimmy Ko-Ko-Bop while Swae YAH YAHs in the background is notable only for its lack of being noteworthy; neither cynical enough to merit a sneer, nor outstanding enough to rate anything more than grout radio-play.
[4]

Alfred Soto: What on earth is happening here? The wistful airiness of the backing track doesn’t mesh with Ellie Goulding’s nonsense about wild animals being close to her, and Swae Lee’s appearance is like he stopped in on his way to buy a newspaper. 
[3]

Joshua Minsoo Kim: Not exactly sure why they went with these lyrics about being wild animals in a jungle when the song doesn’t commit to whatever Ellie Goulding says in the first verse. Swae Lee provides an unnecessary but decently complementary feature spot, jarring “bitch” comment notwithstanding. By the time “Close to Me” is done, one gets the sense that the songwriters had the central hook ready and quickly tried to write a song around it. And indeed, it’s still stuck with me since it dropped last month.
[5]

Micha Cavaseno: In a way, “Close to Me” is the exacted and redundified version of Julia Michaels and Trippie Redd’s “Jump.” Whereas the preceding record is full of deliberate marks of expressive and human errs and plenty of colour to the point it never sticks its landings with efficiency, Goulding & Crew can’t help but nail everything just right yet come off as remarkably slight thanks to the sleekness. Goulding, and even Swae Lee’s homebase in Rae Sremmurd, are kind of defined by this in their hits: perfectly “of-the-now” but unique in a way that feels more about making ideas impenetrable by outsiders. For what it’s worth, Goulding’s methods of execution are seamless, but the lack of characterization is its own sort of signature. An impressive floridity devoid of personality that treats dispassion as serenity.
[7]

Nortey Dowuona: Ellie tonelessly drawls the hook while Diplo’s deflated bubblewrap bass and grooveless drum programming sluggishly tumbles beneath. Swae continues to not take the hint that his singing is mediocre and flat, clogging up the synths.
[4]