Life Thru a Lens by Robbie Williams

Overview

Key: A major · Chords used: 15 · Sections: 17

Where these chords come from: an expert transcription of the original recording made for the Robbie Williams chord annotations (Di Giorgi et al., Politecnico di Milano, 2013). 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)

• A – C♯m
  I – iii

Part 2 (0:05)

• G – D – F
  bVII – IV – bVI

Part 3 (0:17)

• C – G – D – F
  bIII – bVII – IV – bVI

Part 4 (0:28)

• C – G – D – F♯m – Faug – A/E
  bIII – bVII – IV – vi – bVI+ – I⁶₄

Part 5 (0:39)

• E♭dim – D – C♯ – F♯m – Faug – A/E
  bv° – IV – III – vi – bVI+ – I⁶₄

Part 6 (0:51)

• E♭dim – D – A – C♯m – G
  bv° – IV – I – iii – bVII

Part 7 (1:02)

• D – A – C♯m – Bm – F♯m
  IV – I – iii – ii – vi

Part 8 (1:13)

• E – G – D – A – D – F
  V – bVII – IV – I – IV – bVI

Part 9 (1:25)

Same chords as Part 3 (0:17).

Part 10 (1:36)

• C – G – D – F♯dim – Faug – A/E – E♭dim
  bIII – bVII – IV – vi° – bVI+ – I⁶₄ – bv°

Part 11 (1:47)

• D – A – C♯m – G
  IV – I – iii – bVII

Part 12 (1:59)

• D – A – C♯m – Bm – F♯m – E
  IV – I – iii – ii – vi – V

Part 13 (2:10)

• G – C – A – C♯m – G – F
  bVII – bIII – I – iii – bVII – bVI

Part 14 (2:22)

• A – C♯m – G – D
  I – iii – bVII – IV

Part 15 (2:34)

Same chords as Part 14 (2:22).

Part 16 (2:45)

• A – C♯m – Gmaj9 – F – G
  I – iii – bVIImaj9 – bVI – bVII

Part 17 (2:56)

• A
  I

Chord vocabulary

Harmonic highlights

• G (bVII) is borrowed from the parallel key, A minor.
• F (bVI) is borrowed from the parallel key, A minor.
• C (bIII) is borrowed from the parallel key, A minor.
• C♯ acts as V/vi: it resolves to F♯m.

Sources & accuracy

• Chords: the Robbie Williams chord annotations (Di Giorgi et al., Politecnico di Milano, 2013). Chord annotation of the original recording (Life Thru a Lens, 1997), 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 (Life Thru a Lens, 1997), and a part with exactly the same chords as an earlier one says so.
• 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.