Released: 29th October 2001
Writers: Richard Stannard / Julian Gallagher / Ash Howes / Martin Harrington / Richard “Abs” Breen / Jason “J” Brown
Peak position: #4
Chart run: 4-9-15-21-34-29-47-55-62-54-64-X-68
Just weeks after the release of their third album, Five announced a sudden split, though to soften the blow, it would be followed by one final – conveniently prescient – single: Closer To Me.
While Five’s split in September 2001 was unexpected, there had been speculation beforehand about the group’s future due to Sean Conlon’s ongoing absence from the line-up. He didn’t appear in the music video for Let’s Dance – the lead single from their third album, Kingsize – and missed much of the accompanying promotion (the excuse of glandular fever was offered, though the reality was a severe struggle with mental health issues from the pressure that came with fame at a young age). Indeed, despite attempts by Five’s management and record label to continue unabated, behind the scenes, the rest of the group – Richie Neville, Scott Robinson, Abs Breen and Jason “J” Brown – were reaching breaking point. So, on the 27th of September, exactly one month after the release of Kingsize, they (along with Sean) appeared on MTV Select to break some news…
Five confirming their split live on television isn’t an easy watch, yet one that’s compelling because of how raw and unrehearsed it comes across. There’s none of the usual press release spin as they matter-of-factly state the group is ending more or less once the interview has concluded, but that Closer To Me and Rock The Party would be released the following month as a final double-A side (that didn’t technically happen as the latter was never officially credited in the UK). Without prompting, J anticipates accusations of cynical money-grabbing and – somewhat defensively – insists the single is an opportunity for closure which won’t financially them.
After reasoning that the group has come to a natural end and it’s better to go out on top than experience a commercial decline (despite there being no sign of this happening whatsoever), they take calls from viewers and sit looking uncomfortably crestfallen as they listen to fans get increasingly hysterical. There is a degree to which taking such a candid approach is befitting for an act like Five. Yet, as the MTV Select interview continues, it also begins to feel like a punishment by their record label and management for the inconvenience, leaving them totally exposed and uncharacteristically subdued.
And there’s no denying that the timing was terrible from a business perspective. It’s not Five’s fault that things had become so untenable that continuing wasn’t an option. Nevertheless, coming so soon after Kingsize’s release meant the campaign was immediately curtailed when, in all likelihood, it probably would’ve fared well if accompanied by a full complement of singles. Even though Closer To Me and Rock The Party were lifted from the album, they were used to promote a hastily assembled greatest hits compilation instead. Even though Five weren’t typically known for ballads (it’d been over three years since their last, Until The Time Is Through, reached #2 in 1998), Closer To Me is a wholly appropriate swansong for the group. The song is so sombre and downbeat; it captures the mood perfectly because that is precisely how things ended. Indeed, even if this was planned to be a single in circumstances where the Kingsize campaign continued as planned (which is possible because Five recorded a performance of the song for CD:UK before announcing their split), there’s such an overwhelming sense of finality that it wouldn’t have been nearly as impactful.
Closer To Me is, unambiguously, a breakup song: “Constantly girl you’re on my mind, girl, I think about you all of the time, and even though words are hard to say, girl I miss you, never thought I’d feel this way”. Yet, unlike the slickly-produced bubblegum pop of Until The Time Is Through – which was brimming with warm Cheiron-charm – here, the mournful beat shuffles along and is underpinned by a pensive keyboard melody. This is Five at their most profoundly dejected, and that’s without the broader context of what was happening around the single. The contrast from the group’s usual swagger of machismo fills Closer To Me with a striking sense of desperation: “If you keep on taking, my heart you’ll be breaking, so why do you do this to me? You know how I’m feeling, it’s you I believe in, baby can’t you see that I need you?” and that vulnerability makes the track thoroughly – disarmingly – engaging.
That sentiment extends to J’s rapped verse, which – at points – is almost understatedly consumed within the production. It’s here that Closer To Me becomes most poignant as Five’s final single: “Everyday reminisce about the past, of a love that we thought would last, how we used to be when it was you and me, how did it all disappear so fast”. Parallels emerge, in part, due to the group giving such a sincere performance; the song always would have carried an emotional clout, but lines like: “There are days that I can’t forget, there are things that I now regret, I was there for you when you were there for me, and I was thinkin’ we were set” land even heavier as a result. There couldn’t have been a better time to strip away much of the bombastic bravado Five excelled at and re-affirm that they were fundamentally good singers who could convincingly sell an emotive track.
And nowhere is that more evident than the stirring chorus: “(You know that it’s true), every time I see your face I miss you lady (you know that it’s you), I wanna let you know you’re driving me crazy, I’d do anything to help you to see, I don’t think you understand what you’re doing to me; (you know that it’s true), every now and then I wanna call you lately, (you know that it’s you), I say a prayer that you’ll come back to me lady, (oh yeah), life ain’t anything alone, can’t you see, you’re an angel in my eyes, every day, you’re closer to me” which is beautifully layered. The delivery is never so pained that the song becomes histrionic, but it is immensely heartfelt, nonetheless (particularly the rousingly subtle: “Oh, I” and: “Oh, yeah-eah” backing vocals). Indeed, as the production swells, it’s not hard to imagine how Closer To Me would’ve worked as a wintry, festive-sounding boyband ballad. The track did receive a single remix (albeit one that’s not significantly different to the version on Kingsize). Still, there was certainly scope to have made it more Christmassy had the situation played out differently. Alas.
The immediacy of Five’s split meant the music video for Closer To Me is essentially a clip reel of their career. However, while recognisable sequences from earlier singles such as Everybody Get Up, Don’t Wanna Let You Go and Let’s Dance are included, much of the footage is adapted from a featurette titled Five – The Beginning, which appeared on the VHS release of their greatest hits. It comprises previously unseen home video of the group’s early days, from signing a record deal to the point where they released Slam Dunk Da Funk as their debut single. Yet, as a retrospective, there are some unusual omissions. Several of Five’s bigger hits, like When The Lights Go Out (which reached the top ten in America) and Keep On Movin’ – their first #1 in the UK – don’t get a look in.
Furthermore, because the group’s material tended to be uptempo, there’s very little synchronicity between the visuals and the music; often, Closer To Me feels entirely incidental to what’s happening. When there is an attempt to match them up – such as the slow-motion closing shot of Everybody Get Up where Five walk away from the camera, or a poster of the Kingsize album cover blowing dramatically away in the breeze – it evokes a fitting sense of despondency. The group were a staple of the late-‘90s bubblegum pop era, and even if a greatest hits compilation was a tad premature at this point, it’s a shame they didn’t get to actively celebrate their achievements in the same way as many other acts did.
Although Closer To Me was announced by Five as a double-A side, that isn’t quite what happened in the UK. The single ended up being staggered; CD1 and CD2 were released around a month apart, but only the latter included Rock The Party – with artwork from the animated music video – and both formats were listed solely as Closer To Me. The track debuted and peaked at #4 despite the unavoidable lack of promotion and scant radio airplay (though there was that one pre-recorded CD:UK performance, at least). Spacing out the formatting did, at least, ensure the single hung around the lower end of the chart longer than it might otherwise have. Closer To Me sold fractionally less than 120,000 copies (the 104th biggest-selling single of the year), making it Five’s lowest-seller. Still, all things considered, that’s hardly surprising and certainly not an accurate representation of their popularity before splitting.
The group’s Greatest Hits compilation was released in November 2001, less than three months after Kingsize; it debuted at #11 before climbing to a peak of #9 the following week. As a comprehensive collection of singles – including the US-only It’s The Things You Do – two-thirds of the album is impressively consistent. However, the five additional tracks beyond that somewhat undermine the quality. Inspector Gadget is entertainingly absurd, but Keep On Movin’ (2002 FIFA World Cup Remix) and a 10-minute megamix feel like padding that highlights this is, ultimately, a slightly lean compilation. In that respect, it’s a shame things fell apart so rapidly for Five. If they’d made it through the Kingsize campaign and amassed a few more hits, then an actively promoted greatest hits album with some newly recorded material could – and should – have been a much bigger deal.
Despite the tension that drove them apart, it didn’t take long for Five to reunite. In 2006, the group – minus Sean – announced a comeback and began recording songs for a new album. However, without the backing of a major label, nothing was released, and things quietly fizzled out. In 2012, Five reformed again – with Sean in place of J – to appear on ITV2’s The Big Reunion and headlined a UK tour the following year. They’ve since remained active as a trio after Abs quit in 2014 and released their fourth studio album, Time, in 2022.
The muted manner in which Five announced their sudden split starkly contrasted with their likeably rowdy and rebellious persona. Therefore, even if Closer To Me wasn’t necessarily representative of the singles the group tended to release, it became rather apt as a melancholic swansong.
