Only Happy When It Rains by Garbage

Overview

Key: G♯ minor · Chords used: 7 · Sections: 14

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 (0:03)

• G♯m – F♯ – E – C♯m – E – F♯ – G♯m – F♯
  i – bVII – bVI – iv – bVI – bVII – i – bVII

Part 2 (0:19)

• E – C♯m – E – F♯ – B – C♯ – G♯m
  bVI – iv – bVI – bVII – bIII – IV – i

Part 3 (0:35)

• A – B – C♯ – G♯m – A – B – F♯
  bII – bIII – IV – i – bII – bIII – bVII

Part 4 (0:51)

• G♯m – F♯ – E – C♯m – E – F♯ – B
  i – bVII – bVI – iv – bVI – bVII – bIII

Part 5 (1:06)

• C♯ – G♯m – A – B (×2)
  IV – i – bII – bIII

Part 6 (1:22)

• G♯m – F♯ – E – C♯m – E – F♯ – G♯m
  i – bVII – bVI – iv – bVI – bVII – i

Part 7 (1:38)

• F♯ – E – C♯m – E – F♯ – B – C♯
  bVII – bVI – iv – bVI – bVII – bIII – IV

Part 8 (1:54)

• G♯m – A – B – C♯ (×2)
  i – bII – bIII – IV

Part 9 (2:10)

• G♯m – A – B – C♯ – G♯m – A – B
  i – bII – bIII – IV – i – bII – bIII

Part 10 (2:26)

• F♯ – G♯m – F♯ – E – C♯m – E – F♯
  bVII – i – bVII – bVI – iv – bVI – bVII

Part 11 (2:41)

• G♯m – E – C♯m (×2)
  i – bVI – iv
• G♯m – E
  i – bVI

Part 12 (2:57)

• C♯m – G♯m – E (×2)
  iv – i – bVI
• C♯m – G♯m
  iv – i

Part 13 (3:13)

• E – C♯m – G♯m (×2)
  bVI – iv – i
• E – C♯m
  bVI – iv

Part 14 (3:29)

• G♯m – E – C♯m (×3)
  i – bVI – iv
• G♯m – E
  i – bVI

Chord vocabulary

Harmonic highlights

• C♯ (IV) is borrowed from the parallel key, G♯ major.

Sources & accuracy

• Chords: the Uspop2002 chord annotations (Music and Audio Research Lab, New York University). Chord annotation of the original recording (Garbage), 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 (Garbage), 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.