CLOSE

Description

Close was Kim's sixth studio album, originally released in June 1988. It includes five singles in the UK Top 40, including "You Came" (No. 3 and No. 41 in the U.S.), "Four Letter Word" (No. 6), "Never Trust A Stranger" (No. 7), "Hey Mister Heartache" (No. 31), and "Love In The Natural Way" (No. 32). Both formats include the bonus tracks 'Tell Me Where You Are', originally the B-side of 'Hey Mister Heartache', as well as the 7-inch version of Shep Pettibone's remix of 'You Came'. Kim's growing confidence as a songwriter saw her name associated with all but two of the ten songs originally featured on the album – "Four Letter Word" (by Marty and Ricki Wilde) and a cover of Todd Rundgren's ballad "Lucky Guy" were the only tracks that did not credit Kim as a co-writer. Junior Giscombe returned to add backing vocals to the funky 'Hey Mister Heartache', while Bias Boshell, writer of Kiki Dee's 1974 hit 'I've Got The Music In Me', was brought in to add keyboards to 'Lucky Guy'. Once again, Ricky Wilde was behind the production desk, sharing the task with Tony Swain; his significant success in the 80s led him to work with Imagination on "Body Talk", Spandau Ballet on "True", Alison Moyet on "Love Resurrection", and Bananarama on "Cruel Summer" – contemporary reviews compared his work here to his previous productions with Keren, Sara, and Siobhan. The photo disc recreates the original cover of Close, featuring photographs by Russell Young, who was also responsible for the images that so memorably adorned George Michael's "Faith" and Enya's "Watermark".