| "Across the Sea" | ||||||||||
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| Song by Weezer from the album Pinkerton | ||||||||||
| Released | September 24, 1996 | |||||||||
| Genre | Alternative rock, emo | |||||||||
| Length | 4:32 | |||||||||
| Label | Geffen Records | |||||||||
| Writer | Rivers Cuomo | |||||||||
| Producer | Weezer | |||||||||
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"Across the Sea" is the fifth song from Weezer's second album, Pinkerton. Singer/songwriter Rivers Cuomo wrote "Across the Sea" after receiving a letter from a Japanese girl during a depressing winter at Harvard University. Cuomo remarked, "When I got the letter, I fell in love with her. It was such a great letter. I was very lonely at the time, but at the same time I was very depressed that I would never meet her. Even if I did see her, she was probably some fourteen-year-old girl, who didn't speak English."[1] When asked in 2006 about the girl, he commented that "I don't know anything about her and I've never contacted her."[2] The lyrics also make mention of Cuomo's adolescent consideration of becoming a monk to win the favor of older women, as well as the idea that his mother is responsible for his romantic shortcomings.
The song's guitar solo has a relatively complex chord progression, during which the key modulates from F# major to F# minor (the parallel minor) to Eb major (the parallel major of the original key's relative minor). The following bridge remains in the key of Eb major, then modulates back to F# major for the final verse and chorus.
In the beginning while the piano plays, you can hear a door open, Pat Wilson laugh, and then a bunch of random notes played on a piano.
The song appears on Come On and Kick Me!: The String Quartet Tribute to Weezer and Only in Dreams: Classical Music Inspired by Weezer.