Well you thought you let go, but you’re still hanging on
Mother Earth’s slowing down
She’s still spinning around and we......are getting dizzy

I’ll drop out of the race for more personal space
‘Cause the rockets we’re in get so cold and I miss your skin
It’s just how I’m feeling

If you need more love, well you’ve gotta get close to me
If you want my love, well you’ve gotta get closer to me

No unreachable itch, if you hemorrhage I’ll stitch
You are tears, I’m a cheek
I’m a pail on your boat with slow leaks
Out to sea for weeks

But if you want my love, well you’ve gotta get close to me
If you need my love, well you’ve gotta get closer to me
Ooh, if you want my love…

I don’t understand why we can’t get close enough
I want your kite strings tangled in my trees, all wrapped up
I don’t understand why we can’t get close enough
I’ll be the comets that are falling from the sky you light up

You’re my shirt iron-on, I’m the tick, you’re the bomb
You’re the L and the V, I’m the O and the E
Am I speaking clearly?

If you want my love, well you’ve gotta get close to me
Ooh, if you want my love…

I don’t understand why we can’t get close enough
I miss the shivers in my spine every time that we touch


(Jars of Clay) © 2009 Bridge Building / Pogostick Music (BMI). All rights for the world on behalf of Pogostick Music administered by Bridge Building.

Behind the Song:
CHARLIE LOWELL: “‘Closer’ started as a musical idea Dan came in with. He hummed it to us, and Steve sketched it out on his computer, and then it very quickly evolved into this keyboard-heavy track that pulled from Depeche Mode and Tears for Fears and all the 80’s music we grew up on and still love. And eventually the song became one of the sonic keystones of the record.”

DAN HASELTINE: “We kept hearing different people talk about the songwriting process, and some of the songwriters we admired would talk about writing a killer chorus and then making it the verse of the song. Which meant they’d now have to write a whole new chorus that was even better than the last one. So, this is our first attempt at that, where the chorus (‘If you want my love, well you’ve gotta get closer to me…’) leads to a second ‘super-chorus’ (‘I don’t understand why we can’t get close enough…’).”