This is an adventurous song. It’s also an exceptional song, recording, and piece of music and sound. It’s interesting to note that FKA twigs’ co-writer and co-producer here is Paul Epworth, one of the most successful mainstream writer/producers in the world (Adele’s 21, and on and on and on).

‘Pendulum’ is decidedly not mainstream, although it points to some of the ways mainstream pop could (and will, I think) go. It’s already going.

The arrangement consists of mostly vocals and percussion. The densely layered vocals and the hyperactive percussion create a lot of motion and emotion; the chords are secondary (other than the vocal harmonies).

In most songs chords provide a consistent subtext to the words and melody. In this song they’re just splashes of color, floating in and out. They’re as much inferred – by stray notes and intervals here and there, or more often by the melody – as played.

For example, the first 3 melody notes of each line of the Verse are F#, D, A (with an added B and octave D added in the second half of the line). This outlines a D6 or Bminor chord… so is it necessary to actually play it? They decided No in many spots in this song, with great results.

Harmonically it’s simple; it’s likely that the song was written with about 4 chords (other than the Bridge)… it might’ve even been written without chords, as just a melody with vocal harmonies, with the chordal ideas added later. This obviously turns on its head the more common process of building a song or arrangement around or along with a chord progression. Here the chords are not a constant; they’re accents.

Please give this recording a few close listens (below). It might take a little getting used to, but will repay the time. You can follow (and play) along with the chords below. I did my best to make an accurate transcription, although at times it’s hard to say if there’s enough going on harmonically to actually call it a ‘chord’ – sometimes it’s more like, ‘this chord is suggested’.

I’ve put ‘NC’ for ‘No Chord’. More often than not this happens when, as referred to above, the ‘F#, D, A’ are being sung, strongly suggesting (but not playing) a Bminor or D chord.

4/4 | Bminor | Bminor | Eminor | Eminor | NC | NC | Eminor | Eminor9 |
| NC | NC | D | Eminor9 | D G | Eminor | Eminor D | D |
| NC | NC | A G | Eminor A |
Chorus: | Bminor A G | G | G A Bminor | Bminor |
| NC | NC | Eminor | Eminor | NC | NC | Eminor9 | Eminor9 |
| Eminor9 | G | NC | NC |
Chorus: | Bminor A G | G | G A Bminor | Bminor | 2/4 NC |
4/4 (Bridge:)| Bminor | E7/G# | Aminor7 | NC | Bminor | E7/G# | Aminor7 | NC | 2/4 Bminor A |
4/4 Chorus: | Bminor A G | G | G A Bminor | Bminor | Bminor A G | G | G A Bminor | Bminor |

The Bridge is what made me fall for this song (which in itself is unusual). After the stinginess and simplicity of the pre-bridge chords, to suddenly arrive at a section with almost Stevie Wonder-ish harmonies is breathtaking. The chords are lush, but seem doubly or triply so when they come in after all the preceding sparseness. Awesome use of contrast while not going too far – staying in the vibe of the piece.

FKA twigs has a bunch of other interesting songs too – check her out.

If you disagree with what I hear or have other interpretations of the harmonies in ‘Pendulum’, I’d love to know.

Please let me know your thoughts in the Comments section below:

And please share on facebook etc. by clicking the tabs under the video  –