With the pandemic seeming to place life interminably on hold, Marie Naffah echoes the sentiment of many in seeking to re-engage with the simple pleasures repeatedly postponed over the last two years: a reawakened enthusiasm the singer-songwriter found in interacting with the live music scene once more, seeing her embark on a whistle-stop fifty shows in fifty days tour. Celebrating this to some extent, “I Want More”, at its core, treads a thin line between soft ballad and soaring torch song, powered by a series of stirring pop choruses, stitched with subtle guitar cues and booming vocals that amplify the soulful hooks that anchored acclaimed debut EP Golden State.
Naffah’s latest single syncs with this universal human drive for impulsiveness – a sense of exploration that has inevitably been pushed to the sidelines recently. “Though this EP isn’t necessarily about the pandemic, there are certain elements which definitely speak to it,” she says. “’I Want More’ appeals to the aspirational elements in all of us, to that deep-seated urge for adventure and achieving our dreams. It goes without saying, all that’s been quite a lot harder over the last two years.”
The track orbits around the beauty of touring, relationships and opportunities that are often taken for granted. “Although the song initially screens as a love song, the song for me is actually about wanting to feel the magic of live music again. I wanted to get really intimate and into the nitty-gritty of that,” Naffah explains. “The song is all about electricity, really – it’s a nod to all the cables and amps – it was about wanting to really buzz again. It’s about losing a spark and wanting to find it and refusing to settle for ‘fine’. I think the beauty of the song is that it can be applicable to so many other things – better relationships, better careers, taking more risks, more adventures. I want this song to dare people to dream, begging the question- ‘what do you want more of?’”
