Closer to You is the eleventh studio album by American singer-songwriter J. J. Cale, released on August 23, 1994 through the independent French label Delabel and distributed by Virgin Records.

In an interview with Vintage Guitar in 2004, Cale acknowledged the dismay some fans felt, recalling: …me playing with the synthesizer, everybody hated.

The horns are used on the closing track “Steve’s Song,” which AllMusic describes as a “hypnotically groovy instrumental.” The same review also complements the electronic treatment of Cale’s vocals on the title track, a technique that surprisingly makes him sound as down-to-earth as ever.” In truth, the majority of the songs boast the sound that Cale is so well-known for.

The lusty “Slower Baby” and the breezy “Sho-Biz Blues” are characteristic Cale tracks, with the latter documenting the bleak realities of a musician’s life.

(“The bus breaks down and the motel’s bad, you’re always in a stew…”) The foreboding “Borrowed Time” and “Brown Dirt” are meditations on mortality, the latter from the perspective of a Mississippi cotton picker who observes, “Brown dirt, somebody told me, be the last place you lay.” The gentle love song “Rose in the Garden” appeals for affection while the more direct “Like You Used To” asks a lover to “Tell me that you really love me, even if it ain't true.” The album also includes one live track, “Hard Love.” AllMusic said “with the dazzling Closer to You, J.J. Cale finds ever-newer surprises in his own remarkable corner of the musical world.”[3]