Dreampop duet atmos bloom join a long list of artists with a song named ‘Closer’ (think Nine Inch Nails, Aerosmith, Kylie Minogue, Better than Ezra, Corinne Bailey Rae, Mike Oldfield; the list goes on…). What is it about this word ‘closer’ that attracts songwriters? Is it the ambition of the word? Or the implied incompleteness? How it fits any genre? Or the implication of bodies, hearts, or souls moving toward each other?
In this case, the word seems to reflect the mental and emotional exercise of imagining yourself closer to someone you’ve lost. Lines like ‘Feel myself closing in / Trying to hold memories / I know I’m gonna let them in / This much is needed’ and ‘I feel that you are here with me / But I miss her, I miss her, I do’ give you the idea of how ‘Closer’ maneuvers through loss.
It’s the music, though, that doesn’t allow us to feel sorry for ourselves as we overcome what’s left us. Layered guitars with just the right dose of reverb and delays, driving bass, straightforward drumming, and sticky sweet delay-soaked vocals paint this song right onto my summer playlist.
Aside from the music and words, the cover art is just perfect. A simple, yellowed-out photo of the inside of a train window. Tiny, uncomfortable train table included. Reflecting both some undefined housing outside and the other side of the inside of the carriage. On a train, staring out the window, somewhere in the in-between, getting closer.
Released on Spirit Goth Records, this is their second recent single, which follows up May’s ‘Everything’. Spirit Goth has some great merch, including Cassette Club, which, in the spirit of Start-track’s affection for cassettes, simply needs to be plugged. Sign up, and you get a quarterly cassette from the label.
Written by Greg Gobel
