Closer Than This

The song

‘Closer Than This’ is a single by Jimin, released on 22 December 2023 with the one song on it. The album introduction states that it is written for the fandom ARMY, and describes it as an easy-listening track that lays a hip-hop rhythm over a quiet beat, with a choir joining in the closing section. The music video was uploaded to the HYBE LABELS channel on the day of release.

The following year the song went on to the mini album MUSE, released on 19 July 2024, as its seventh and closing track. Its reviews therefore sit inside reviews of that record rather than of the single.

Reviews

Billboard’s Jeff Benjamin, ranking the album’s songs as he reviewed it, wrote of this one: “A soothing blend of what sounds like acoustic guitar mixed into a subtle hip-hop beat, ‘Closer Than This’ closes out Muse as its final track by nicely wrapping up the overall sentiments of affection and intimacy across the album for a warm, final message for fans to hold on to as they anticipate Jimin’s return in less than a year.” The same piece notes that the song closed Jimin’s 2023, arriving just after he began his military service, and places it fourth among the album’s seven tracks.

Reviewing the album for NME, Rhian Daly introduced the song as “a quick detour back to the heartfelt feeling of the first half”. She wrote: “But, amid Jimin’s promises to ‘never let you go’, perhaps there’s a lesson for all of us: there are many kinds of love we should nurture, not just the ardent type.”