As the follow-up to his 2020 debut, Make Am, the Nigerian-born, US-based singer Y.D.A’s sophomore project Closer has a tight focus that reads like bullet points, with linked production and thematic targets, reinforced by precise songwriting. The brevity of five songs brings cohesion to Closer that is sustained by an even timbre that becalms rather than bellows. While “Just Me” celebrates sexual fidelity, “Closer” is a slick but desperate come-on to no-nonsense lovemaking: “Can you handle me?/I’ma bench press the body/No dey question me.” Over a smooth dancehall production that segues into emo-trap, Y.D.A’s tale of longing meshes Nigerian pidgin with Jamaican patois, building up to a cooing, climactic end. No erotic posturing is to be found on “Sade”, an unabashed plea to the eponymous lover whose disinterest is also affecting the singer’s swell plans for the coming months: “Hot boy summer, she turned that shit to a cold one.” Matched with an urgent choral refrain, the throbbing amapiano production on “All Over” combines persistent kick drums with digital piano, nimble synthesizers, and clusters of vamps.