"More Than This" is a song by the English
rock band
Roxy Music. It was released in March 1982 as the first single from their eighth and final studio album, Avalon (1982). "More Than This" was the group's last top-10 UK hit, peaking at
No. 6 on the
UK Singles Chart, and also charted in the United States, reaching No. 58 on the BillboardRock Top Tracks chart.
"More Than This" has become one of Roxy Music's most popular tracks.[7] American
alternative rock band
10,000 Maniacs released a
cover version in 1997 that peaked at No. 25, and British singer
Emmie released a cover that reached No. 5 in the UK in January 1999. The cover of the single's release is the painting Veronica Veronese, by
Dante Gabriel Rossetti, which was completed in 1872 with
Alexa Wilding as the model.
Composition
The song was written by lead vocalist
Bryan Ferry, who has stated in interviews that he began writing the songs for Avalon while on the western coast of
Ireland, which he believes contributed to the dark melancholy of the album.[8] "More Than This" is somewhat unusual for a pop song in that Ferry's lead vocals end at 2:45 minutes, leaving the last 1:45 minutes as a
synthesizer-driven instrumental outro. The song's narrator is hopeful about the existence of something more but is vaguely melancholic about there not being so.[9][10][11]
In 1997, a cover performed by
10,000 Maniacs with
Mary Ramsey on lead vocals was a single from their album Love Among the Ruins becoming a US hit when it reached No. 25 on the
Billboard Hot 100 on the week ending 29 August 1997.[27] The version also debuted at its peak position, No. 87, on the
UK Singles Chart on the week ending 28 September 1997.[28] The video for the cover was filmed at
House on the Rock. A live version was also included on their 2016 album Playing Favorites.
English singer-songwriter
Emmie recorded a cover of the song and released it as a single on 11 January 1999.[29] Produced by Mark Hadfield and Adam Carter-Ryan, her version of the song peaked at No. 5 on the
UK Singles Chart,[30] No. 25 on the
Irish Singles Chart,[14] and No. 39 in the
Flanders region of Belgium.[31]
References
^Strong, Martin C. (2006). The Essential Rock Discography. Edinburgh: Canongate Books. p. 931.
ISBN1-84195-860-3.
^Pitchfork Staff (24 August 2015).
"The 200 Best Songs of the 1980s". Pitchfork. Retrieved 18 October 2022. Pop songs are very rarely as lush and unabashedly romantic as "More Than This"..."More Than This" is a high peak of the New Romantic moment of early 1980s UK pop...