The Singles Jukebox

This song features a curious lack of a guitar solo…

[Video][Website]
[5.27]

Crystal Leww: I’ve finally given into the serious rebranding that Nick Jonas has undertaken. “Jealous” and “Chains” were fine songs, but the blue-eyed soul angle that his team was going for felt icky in the wake of Robin Thicke and Icky herself. The music this time around sounds much more like what Justin Bieber did, which is much more dance-oriented. No, EDM-pop definitely isn’t back, but savvy artists like Bieber and Jonas have found a way to incorporate up-and-coming but still very safe dance genres like tropical house into their sounds. “Close” is almost laughably 23 year-old boy — it features corny steel drum production and is about how 23 year-old Nick Jonas has a hard time opening up and commitment. Every 23 year-old boy feels as though they are special because they were once dumped and now feel a little vulnerable about opening back up again, but you know what? I can relate, and this sounds hot and Nick looks sooooo good in the video and Tove Lo is a great duet partner so I guess what I’m trying to say is 
[8]

Jer Fairall: This is the Jonas with the cred, right? Makes sense, as he affects anguish enough that I suppose someone was bound to take him seriously. Poptimists oughta know better, though; even the steel drum sounds bored.
[3]

Alfred Soto: The rhythm’s steady churn works for Nick Jonas: the dude should never squeak again, and certainly never imitate Jason Derulo. And whether it’s Pro Tools or practice he and Tove Lo do harmonize. 
[6]

Iain Mew: Silence being shattered by Nick Jonas’s CLOSE groan is a bit too true to the concept. I would like a whole song of Tove Lo doing “Here” with steel drums in place of Portishead though.
[4]

Cassy Gress: I’ll buy that Tove Lo wants to get close to someone, but it’s not Nick Jonas, because he sounds like he’s singing to a Farrah Fawcett swimsuit poster. There’s no real passion, no real sense of intimacy. The pan drums in the chorus are unnecessarily repetitive and their brightness is muffled into a dim metallic grunt.
[4]

Micha Cavaseno: The coldness I continue to see in Nick Jonas is part of the reason why I suppose I appreciate him; everything with this man is a process, and you can see the outlines like a series of design sketches. The crescendo he attempts before diving into the chorus is miserably grating in attempting to mirror Tove (who’s honestly the best I ever heard her here), but you can see he’s finally gained a more comfortable foot in R&B-inflected pop as opposed to rock with R&B dressings with his last LP. The perfect trick though is the brief moments where we have to sit and chill on those haunting steel drums, both mirroring the bounce of Bieber/Skrillex’s tropical house successes but touched with a forced momentum for the tension in the song. I would honestly prefer a version without the lead artist, a version with much less of the feeling of finding one’s footing, but it still manages to inspire a lot more expectation in Jonas’ continued progress.
[6]

Thomas Inskeep: Nick Jonas has been easy enough to ignore for much of his career: the Jonas Brothers weren’t even a boy band, they were a Disney boy band, and the singles from his second solo album, last year, were slow-burn hits that never really hit my radar. But suddenly it feels like Nick’s about to have his Timberlake moment. His SNL performance last weekend smoldered, he’s buff as fuck, and this is slinky and sexy and “Cry Me A River”-esque (except it’s not a kiss-off). It also benefits from Tove Lo’s slightly-just-so-off vocal tones. “Close” is slow without being a ballad, and will sound distinct as hell on the radio this summer, amidst all the EDM-pop blanketing the airwaves.
[8]

Brad Shoup: “I’m so perplexed that it’s almost shocking”: try me, buddy. Like “I Took a Pill in Ibiza,” “Close” cops to keeping feelings hid, which for pop-music guys in 2016 is like telling the hiring manager that your biggest fault is perfectionism. Synths pad like steel drums, or maybe the steel drums have been muffled and molded into synth shapes. Tove Lo, as you’d expect, sounds 4,000 miles away; Nick’s all up in his head, just as he warned us.
[5]

Will Adams: Nick literally can’t open up and be vulnerable, but he’s more than willing to throw his questionable falsetto all over the place. Tove Lo stands by and watches as watery steel drums feign pathos.
[4]

Leonel Manzanares de la Rosa: Post-Purpose steel drums and a clearly Zayn-influenced atmosphere are a step in the right direction for Jonas — who’s been trying to shake off his boy-band status for a while now — but this song is ultimately still a bit too safe. Tove Lo’s verse adds some needed menace, and there’s a certain charm in the beat’s faux-reggae pace, but the final result doesn’t meet the great potential in those elements. That said, this one will get a bonus point because the lyric “won’t ask for space, cause space is just a word made up by someone who’s afraid to get too close,” is a winner.
[5]

Scott Mildenhall: “Space is just a word made up by someone who’s afraid to get close”, they claimed, shortly before being relieved of their duties at the OED. As long they have each other though, everyone else is safe. The sonic austerity doesn’t help their cause — while “it’s my right to be hellish” at least foregrounded all its nice little wobbly noises, this one mistakes spartan for sensual and highlights its dubiousness. Intense Feelings are a source of pop gold, but it’s a fine line.
[5]