Clocks

To this day, Clocks is still mesmerizing. A truly compelling 4 bar progression: Eb Major, Bb Minor, Bb Minor, F Minor. That’s 3 minor shapes in a row — yet the riff sounds overwhelmingly positive — which is normally the domain of major chords. A true stroke of genius.

To my knowledge, I can’t think of another song (other than Coldplay’s The Speed of Sound) that doubles up on the middle (minor) chord. ‘The Speed of Sound’ was clearly a later attempt to capture the magic of Clocks. At the time, they…