The holidays have a way of amplifying everything. Joy feels brighter, but loneliness cuts deeper, and silence carries more weight than usual. On “Close,” SIESKI leans into that tension, offering a song that does not try to resolve the season’s contradictions so much as sit gently inside them. It is a small, intimate track, but one that understands the power of restraint.
Built around live piano and cello, “Close” unfolds slowly, its jazz-tinged arrangement grounded and unshowy. There is no rush toward a hook, no dramatic shift meant to demand attention. Instead, the song breathes. The instrumentation feels almost conversational, giving SIESKI’s voice the space to hover, soften, and linger. Her vocals are ethereal without drifting into abstraction, emotional without tipping into melodrama.
What makes “Close” resonate is its clarity of feeling. SIESKI writes about connection not as something triumphant, but as something sustaining. “The world, it doesn’t feel as dark / When you are brightening it up,” she sings, a line that lands because of its simplicity. It captures the quiet relief of being seen, of knowing that even in isolation, intimacy can exist in subtle, everyday ways.
SIESKI’s background as a queer theatre artist is felt in the song’s emotional pacing. There is a sense of intention behind every pause, every held note. She understands when to step forward and when to pull back, letting the song’s silences speak just as clearly as its lyrics. It is this control that keeps “Close” from feeling overly sentimental, even as it deals directly with vulnerability.
The release continues a trajectory that has seen SIESKI steadily redefine the edges of alternative pop. Her work has previously been described as “an auditory odyssey”, and comparisons to artists like Beth Orton and Magdalena Bay feel apt here, not in sound so much as in spirit. Like them, SIESKI prioritizes mood and emotional texture over obvious payoff.
Featured Images: Artist Supplied
