Island in the Sun by Weezer

Overview

Key: E minor · Chords used: 7 · Sections: 12

Where these chords come from: an expert transcription of the original recording made for the Uspop2002 chord annotations (Music and Audio Research Lab, New York University). This page shows that transcription as-is: the analysis below is generated directly from it by code, not written by AI. Consecutive repeats of a chord are shown once, and the piano voicings are our playable arrangement of each chord symbol, not a note-for-note transcription.

Section by section

Part 1 (0:00)

• Em – Am – D – G (×4)
  i – iv – bVII – bIII

Part 2 (0:17)

Same chords as Part 1 (0:00).

Part 3 (0:33)

Same chords as Part 1 (0:00).

Part 4 (0:50)

Same chords as Part 1 (0:00).

Part 5 (1:07)

Same chords as Part 1 (0:00).

Part 6 (1:24)

• Em – Am – D – G (×2)
  i – iv – bVII – bIII
• D – G5 (×2)
  bVII – bIII5

Part 7 (1:40)

• C – Am7 – D
  bVI – iv7 – bVII
• Em – Am – D – G (×2)
  i – iv – bVII – bIII

Part 8 (1:57)

Same chords as Part 1 (0:00).

Part 9 (2:14)

Same chords as Part 1 (0:00).

Part 10 (2:31)

• D – G5 (×2)
  bVII – bIII5
• C – Am7 – D
  bVI – iv7 – bVII

Part 11 (2:47)

Same chords as Part 1 (0:00).

Part 12 (3:04)

• Em – Am – D – G (×3)
  i – iv – bVII – bIII
• Em
  i

Chord vocabulary

Sources & accuracy

• Chords: the Uspop2002 chord annotations (Music and Audio Research Lab, New York University). Chord annotation of the original recording (Weezer Green Album), time-stamped by researchers; CC BY 4.0 via ChoCo.
• Section names: this annotation doesn't name verses or choruses, so they aren't guessed. Instead, code used the chord timings to find the bars and cut the song into 8-bar parts. Each part is labelled with the time it starts in the annotated recording (Weezer Green Album), and a part with exactly the same chords as an earlier one says so.
• The key was estimated by code from the chords; this annotation doesn't state it.
• Not verified: only one expert transcription of this song is available so far.
• Rhythm and chord durations aren't shown; each step is one chord change.