More Than This by Roxy Music

Album: Avalon (1982)

Charted: 6 102

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Songfacts®:

Written by lead singer Bryan Ferry, this song is about a love affair that fell apart. Asked in 2014 by Entertainment Weekly why the song endures, Ferry replied, "For some reason, there's something in the combination of the melody and the lyric that works for people."
Avalon was Roxy Music's last album and their biggest seller. The band started out as more of a glam rock outfit, but they later turned to melancholy pop, with this song being the apotheosis of that sound. Brian Ferry embarked on a successful solo career, but remained far more successful in the UK, where his 1985 album Boys and Girls went to #1.
In America, this song got some traction when it featured in Sofia Coppola's 2003 film Lost In Translation in a scene where Bill Murray sings it in a Tokyo karaoke bar. When the song was first released, however, it had little impact on the charts, bubbling under at just #102 on the Hot 100. Many college radio stations played the song, but commercial stations stayed away for the most part.

Roxy Music occupied just a small niche in America, where they hit the Top 40 just once ("Love Is the Drug" - #30 in 1975), but they were far more successful in the UK.
Ferry's vocal ends at 2:45, leaving the last 1:45 as a synth-driven instrumental.
Ferry told The Mail on Sunday June 28, 2009 about the Avalon album: "I started writing the songs while on the west coast of Ireland, and I like to think that some of the dark melancholy of the album comes from that place."
10,000 Maniacs covered this in 1997 on their album Love Among The Ruins. Mary Ramsey sang lead, as original Maniacs lead singer Natalie Merchant had just left the band to go solo. >>
Suggestion credit:
Miles - Washington DC

Comments: 18

Bob from Los Angeles I first heard RM’s “More Than This”, on then L.A. soft rock and pop Station “94.7 ~ The Wave” back in the ‘82. It was off their “Avalon” album, and since that time, I have had at least a dozen iterations of that album starting with vinyl, then cassettes, and finally CD’s. While Bryan Ferry has stated that the song was written following the breakup of a relationship for him, it became more of an ethereal and cathartic anthem for me. I derived no greater aural pleasure from it - than when I drove windows-down, westward, on California State Highway 70 - through the stunning Feather River Canyon. As the namesake river churned alongside you, late on a warm summer’s day, your rejuvenation was completed with the omnipresent fragrance of Ponderosa Pine (certainly nothing more pleasant in the olfactory sense), proved there was no better revelation for the love of life itself.
Rich from Port Townsend, WaGreat song by a great artist(s). Love this album, I always think of the old mansion in wiesbaden I lived in at the time I got this album. This song, Avalon and especially My Only Love, which in many ways is a perfect complement to MTT. I always thought the song was about a an perfect affair, but that was all it was. Not marriage, kids, mortgage, just this, nothing more!
Sofia from ColombiaOh this song is so nostalgic! I love it, but I don't know why transmits that blue atmosphere.. anyway it's a great song! Like this band as well
Alicoy from Long Beach, CaFavorite song of all time
Seventhmist from 7th HeavenSusannah Hoffs (with Matthew Sweet) did a great cover of this song a few years ago.
Rubylake from CanadaI'm with Camille on this one, as i think the lyrics are speaking about finding love so perfect that there was nothing more to be found. "More than this, there is nothing." Romantic rock and roll :)
Camille from Toronto, OhI'm more familiar with the 10,000 Maniacs version and prefer it to the one by Roxy Music. Hauntingly beautiful, and the vocals from Maniac's Mary Ramsey are sublime. The joy in the song is the feeling that I get when I hear it. It lifts you up and out of your environment to a lovely place. I always thought the lyrics were speaking about finding love so perfect that there was nothing more to be found. "More than this, there is nothing." Sort of like being totally and completely saturated by satisfying love with no need to look further, complete; a sentiment similar to the lyrics of "I Could Not Ask For More."
Esskayess from Dallas, TxRM had finally grown up when the Avalon album came out. Their 70s songs nauseated me and this was Ferry's final fling with them before striking out on his own -- with far better results.
Jack from Mesa, AzIan i thought this might be some sort of atheist thing too. If you think of it that way it is profound. We are both idiots i guess.
Ian from Stockton, CaMan I'm an idiot, I always thought this song was about being an atheist or something.
Yuri from Moscow, Russia FederationHow many more times will I listen this song in future? Can't say. But I listened it maybe tens of hundreds or thousands times on a tape and then "in digit". Now I'm on my search of that unique sound which I try to find in another songs. "More Than This" very means to me. I wonder to know what thing motived Ferry to create so beaut. sound and why do I like it?
Jim from Long Beach, CaClassic Roxy!!..I just love this lush song...
Charlotte from Santa Barbara, CaMike, let it go. This song and video are epic and you can say whatever you like about the instrumental but as a 15-yr old in Mormon reform school, this song AND album saved my life.
Robert Campion from Galway, IrelandAwesome song...the lyrics are actually pretty simple and sparse.. but its a very atmospheric song and its Ferry's vocal that send shivers down your spine. Probably my favorite Roxy Music/Bryan ferry song ... "Oh Yeah" and "Slave to Love" being the others... Never seen the Video...I don' pay too much attention to vidoes anyway...the artists often have very little input. Have always loved the cover art on Roxy Music/Bryan Ferry Albums though !!!
Mike from Santa Barbara, CaMadison Park covered this song in 2005.
Joe from Perth, Australiathis song has a timeless connection to people and i think decades from now this song will still connect with people
Luke from Manchester, EnglandThe vid isn't "creepy", it's 80s and garish
Mike from Santa Barbara, CaThis is a great song, but the video is creepy. And the ending insturmental goes on too long.

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