LINER NOTES · ISSUE 001 · SIDE A
The email told you how "Take On Me" flopped twice before it became a hit. Here's what happened after the hairspray settled: a stadium record nobody wrote about, a cover in nearly every decade since, and the acoustic version that got a whole new generation misty at the end of the world.
On this record
🎸 Track 1: the version I can't stop replaying
🏟️ Track 2: 198,000 people and zero headlines
🎺 Track 3: everyone wanted a turn
📺 Track 4: the cameo
🎙️ Track 5: where a-ha is now
🎟️ Hidden track: collect hall passes
TRACK 1 · The version I can't stop replaying
Ellie's, from The Last of Us. In the 2020 game, Ellie finds a guitar in an abandoned Seattle music store (somehow the apocalypse skipped the guitar aisle) and plays "Take On Me." HBO put the scene on screen in May 2025, with Bella Ramsey playing it for real (Season 2, Episode 4, "Day One"). The showrunners called it one of the most important scenes of the season.
A synth-pop dance hit, stripped down to one voice and one guitar. On paper it shouldn't work. That falsetto is not exactly campfire-friendly. It hits harder anyway.
The talent of these young actors amazes me. If you play guitar, you know it's NOT easy to sing and play at the same time, let alone sound good. Bella's performance is simple, and it brings so much to the scene.
Pop quiz: how many frames did the animators draw by hand for the video?
That's Side A. Flip the tape.
Side B is where it gets good:
The night 198,000 people showed up, and the music press looked the other way.
A ska band, Weezer and a cartoon family, each taking a turn.
The duet Morten Harket just released, 40 years after that falsetto.
Free, every Tuesday. One song, the story you never heard, and a 10-minute hall pass from the doomscroll. No pencil required to rewind.