MORE THAN THIS

It's more than two years since the latest Roxy Music review! I just added a bunch of singles into their discography, here's a look at one of them. Some think they were at their very best in the early, and, admittedly, more innovative Art Rock years (1972 -- ?), while music listeners such as me prefer the radio-friendly charm of the early 80's. I have enjoyed their succesful album Avalon since my teens; I was 12 or 13 when I must have heard my sister playing it.

This beautifully coated single (the original painting is by Dante Gabriel Rossetti, I presume) seems to contain two unedited tracks from Avalon. 'More Than This' opens the album, and what a charming pop song it is. The production is really the finest there were at the time. The song is relaxed, elegant and romantically airy. I don't mind if some think it's cheesy and yuppish.

'India' is a brief (1:45) instrumental built on a percussive riff. Nice, not spectacular. As a little anti-commercial study with arty nuances, it would be most interesting non-album B-sider on the New Wave era, but being an album track naturally doesn't make it worse. On Avalon it serves as a prelude to the seamlessly following melancholic song 'While My Heart Is Still Beating'.