“Close to Me” by The Cure

"Close to Me" was the second and last single pulled from The Head on the Door, the Cure's sixth album, and it slipped out in September 1985 sounding like a panic attack you could dance to. Robert Smith wrote every word and note, sings it, and produced it with David M. Allen, who engineered the session too.

It's a tiny, cramped thing on purpose. Boris Williams keeps a clipped beat on drums and percussion, Simon Gallup's bass nudges along underneath, and Porl Thompson and Lol Tolhurst's keyboards bob and nag while Smith breathes his lines right up against your ear. The song builds by piling on one instrument after another, and the 7-inch and 12-inch mixes went one better, adding a brass section you won't hear on the album.

Tim Pope's video took the claustrophobia literally: all five of them crammed into a wardrobe perched on a cliff edge at Beachy Head, Williams clapping along, Tolhurst on a toy-sized handheld keyboard, Thompson on the top shelf plucking a comb for the little high guitar notes, and Gallup apparently tied up, with a light bulb in his mouth so he'd glow from within. Pop with the lights off and the walls closing in.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.