Who’d have thought that an album by Kim Wilde in 2025 would be so much fun? It really is though.
Now approaching a pensionable age in her mid-60s, you wouldn’t know it from her vocals, which are up there with the best of her career, and, let’s be honest, she still looks stunning too. What’s not to like?
The most enjoyable moments on Closer (I’m unsure whether it is titled as such because Kim views it as a natural successor to her 1988 album Close, but to be fair, she’s done about eight albums since then so probably not) is when she embraces a kind of early 1990s dance style, so the triple whammy of the opening triad that are ‘Midnight Train‘, ‘Scorpio‘ and ‘Trail Of Destruction‘ are something to behold. Particularly interesting is ‘the middle one of those, ‘Scorpio‘, which harks back to her earliest recordings and comes off sounding a little like The Runaways at the same time, which is no bad thing at all.
‘Midnight Train‘ on the other hand, is like a rave track from back in the day, at its outset. I’m unsure whether there was a deliberate nod to the “everyone avoids me like a cyclone ranger” segment of ‘Turning Japanese‘ by The Vapors here, on the part that goes “Staring at the mirror like a total stranger / Everyone around me are in mortal danger” but it sure as hell reminds me of it, but really this is immaterial, as it really is quite a banger regardless.
Perhaps the best of the salvo is recent single ‘Trail Of Destruction‘, which is pop with a capital P, unashamedly so, exuberant and joyful despite the nature of its lyrics. And yes, I know that exuberant and joyful are more or less the same thing, but really that just shows how buoyant the track is.
Another highlight is next, ‘Sorrow Replaced‘, which features Midge Ure, rather wonderfully, and the emotion that’s wrought out of the music here is on Evanescence levels, but the pinnacle of this collection, for me, is the Goldfrapp-like ‘Rocket To The Moon‘, which is simply a riot, complete with glam rock style guitar riffs and a sultry, spoken word section that proves Kim has lost none of the allure that enticed us in the first place, way back in 1981.
My only gripe – and it’s only a tiny quibble – is that perhaps some of the slower tracks aren’t all that memorable. It takes quite a while before you realise what a great song ‘Lighthouse‘ is, and even longer to appreciate ‘Savasana‘, which is an odd choice for a closing track, but again, repeat listens reap dividends. Still, it’s when Kim ramps up the ‘high energy’ on songs like ‘Love Is Love‘ – which the late, great Donna Summer would have been proud of – that Closer really shines.
Kim Wilde has always been an excellent performer and her albums have always been, at the very least, listenable, but Closer goes beyond that, putting it right up there with the finest records of her 44 years in the industry.
Closer is out now on Cherry Red.
