Closer To Me, the second single form Kokoroko’s upcoming album ‘Tuff Times Never Last’ is released today.
Produced by Miles James (Little Simz, Yussef Dayes, Tom Misch) ‘Closer To Me’ is a swaggering and laissez faire number that effortlessly succeeds in creating a vibe to soundtrack the looming start of summer.
Centered around themes of intimacy and longing, ‘Closer To Me’ lyrically follows in the vein of their previous single ‘Sweetie’ – being a track for the lovers and the yearners but this time expressed with greater earnestness. The hypnotic refrain repeated throughout the track “When you call me baby / Baby make me lose control / Do I like it maybe / Sweet my mind and sweet my soul” serves to evoke a palpable air of sensuousness and romance.
Speaking on the decision to creatively explore the matters of the heart with more directness in their music, co-bandleader Sheila Maurice-Grey said: “You can feel like especially as musicians, you don’t want to write about love because everyone’s writing about love. But then sometimes that’s actually, that’s all I want to write about. So why not lean into it?”
Speaking on the track’s creative process and inspiration, co-bandleader Onome Edgeworth said, “‘Closer To Me’ for me is a Hip-Hop record at its core. It doesn’t have any rapping on it, but the drums, the sampling and the feeling of it is very Hip-Hop. It’s like the old Common records”.
