Across the Sea is the fifth song from Weezer's second album, Pinkerton. It is one of the most popular songs on the album among Weezer fans and is often considered one of the band's best overall. Singer/songwriter Rivers Cuomo wrote the song after he received 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." Luerssen D., John. Rivers' Edge: The Weezer Story. ECW Press, 2004, ISBN 1-55022-619-3 p. 194 This song also discusses when Rivers was an adolescent and was considering becoming a monk. When asked in 2006 about the girl, he commented that "I don't know anything about her and I've never contacted her."
The song has a very complex chord progression because the vocal melody penned by Cuomo moves around organically with very little repeated motifs. The non-linear quality of the vocal melody creates a chord progression that follows a non-linear pattern, most notably in the progression during the second verse, the third verse that follows the bridge, and the final chorus.
The song appears in Come On and Kick Me!: The String Quartet Tribute to Weezer and Only in Dreams: Classical Music Inspired by Weezer.
