More Than This (Peter Gabriel song)
"More Than This" is a song by English rock musician Peter Gabriel from his 2002 album, Up.[1] The song was released as the second single from Up and was the only song from the album to chart in the UK, reaching number 47. It was also included on the Growing Up Live concert film in 2003. The live performance featured projections of a balloon suspended above the stage.[2]
"More Than This"
Background[edit]
Progress on "More Than This" began late in the development process for Up.[3] Gabriel was playing around with a Fender Telecaster guitar that producer Daniel Lanois left in the studio and decided to sample the instrument on a keyboard.[2] Gabriel quipped that he "can't play guitar to save my life, but I can make noises on it."[3] He drew further inspiration from a groove on a cassette he was listening to while traveling the Italian Alps.[2]
The song begins with manipulated guitar sounds from Gabriel's keyboard, after which the first verse starts. These guitar samples also return in the song's second verse.[4] Lyrically, the verses describe a long walk to an unfamiliar place and a vision of people struggling at sea. After the second chorus, which describe the narrator feeling 'alone and so connected', a quieter bridge emerges, which borrows some of the lyrical motifs from the preceding section.[2] Several of electronic devices were used on the song, including a Mutator, which engineer Richard Chappell described as a filter box. Chappell explained that "Mutator" and "Wonky Nord" were listed in the song's liner notes because of Gabriel's preference to credit instruments in a particular way that convey their utility.[5]
The single artwork is a photo taken by NASA. Gabriel had provided Marc Bessant, who designed the image, a book titled Full Moon, which featured over 30,000 negative images from the Apollo 11 moon landing. From those images, Bessant selected a picture of a footprint on the moon's surface.[3] In the liner notes of Up, Susan Derge's photo Hermetica was included instead, which depicts nine objects resembling buttons in a circular formation.[2]
Credits from the Up liner notes.[6]