Weezer / Weezer (Teal Album) / 2019
Take on Me
anxious yearning wrapped in bright, propulsive energy
This is Weezer's faithful cover of a-ha's 1985 synth-pop classic, rendered here with the band's signature guitar-driven power-pop sound. The lyric itself is a plea for connection from someone who is both eager and evasive, promising pursuit while also announcing his own imminent departure.
romantic pursuit fear of commitment fleeting connection hesitation and courage impermanence
Who's speaking
A first-person narrator addresses a love interest who keeps retreating from him; he is unsure of his own words even as he insists on pursuing her, and he undercuts his own promises by admitting he won't stay long, which makes him a charmingly unreliable romantic.
What happens
The song opens mid-conversation, with the narrator admitting uncertainty but pressing forward anyway. He notices the other person pulling back and responds not with reassurance but with a countdown to his own departure. The middle section repeats the same emotional loop, adding a fragmentary sense of being scattered or unfinished. By the final verse he questions whether their exchange is genuine or a distraction, then repeats his vow to keep coming for her despite his own instability.
How it's built
Built on a tight verse-chorus loop repeated three times with only small lyrical variations, mirroring the original's hypnotic, circular pop structure. The hook itself is built almost entirely on the ambiguity between two near-identical phrases, and the song ends by dissolving into fragments of that same hook, trailing off rather than resolving.
Section by section
Opening verse
The narrator admits he doesn't know what to say but talks anyway, establishing a voice that is impulsive rather than composed. This sets up the tension between sincerity and uncertainty that runs through the whole song.'
First chorus
“I'll be gone / In a day or two”
The hook's demand for intimacy is immediately followed by an admission of imminent departure, turning what could be a simple love plea into something more ambivalent -- he wants closeness but frames it as temporary from the start.
Second verse
“I'm odds and ends”
The narrator describes himself in fragmented terms, suggesting he sees himself as incomplete or unstable, which reframes his pursuit of the other person as something bound up with his own uncertain sense of self.
Bridge/final verse
He turns reflective, wondering whether the relationship is substantial or merely a diversion from his own anxieties. This is the closest the song comes to genuine doubt about the entire premise, though he resolves it by simply repeating his vow to keep trying.
Outro
The hook breaks into disconnected fragments rather than a clean resolution, echoing the earlier self-description of being scattered and leaving the song's central question -- whether the pursuit will succeed -- deliberately unanswered.
Craft
- wordplay/homophonic pun
- The central hook plays on the near-identical phrasing of two commands, blurring the line between offering intimacy and demanding it, which keeps the song's central request pleasantly destabilized.
- repetition
- The recurring promise-and-countdown pattern across each chorus reinforces the narrator's contradictory stance: he keeps declaring devotion while also rehearsing his own exit.
- self-deprecating imagery
- Describing himself as scattered pieces rather than a whole person captures his instability and explains why his romantic promises feel undercut by doubt.
Reading it
Read straightforwardly, the song is a romantic plea complicated by the narrator's own instability: he wants the other person to take a chance on him even as he warns her he won't stick around. An alternative reading treats the departure lines less literally and more as a metaphor for vulnerability -- the fear that any emotional opening is inherently temporary, so the 'day or two' is less a literal timeline than an expression of insecurity about how long connection can last. Because this is a cover, the interpretive weight rests entirely on the original composition rather than any new authorial intent from Weezer.
Context
This track is a cover of a-ha's 1985 hit 'Take on Me,' recorded for Weezer's 2019 covers collection informally known as the Teal Album, which reimagines several well-known songs from the 1980s using Weezer's guitar-based power-pop style. Weezer did not write these lyrics, so any thematic reading applies to a-ha's original text rather than to Weezer's own songwriting concerns.
Listen for
- How the vocal delivery handles the octave leap that made the original's chorus famous
- The contrast between the bright, driving guitar arrangement and the lyric's underlying uncertainty
- The way the hook's two near-identical phrases blur together on repeated listens
- The shift in tone during the bridge where the narrator questions the sincerity of the exchange
- How the outro fragments the chorus instead of resolving it
About Weezer
Weezer is an American rock band formed in Los Angeles, California, in 1992. Since 2001, the band has consisted of Rivers Cuomo, Patrick Wilson (drums), Brian Bell, and Scott Shriner.
1992 - present / United States
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