harmony tricks in cool rock chorus
here's a cool song by the growlers:
Can someone help me unpack the chorus? It happens at 1:08. It has this sort of back and forth feeling--tension/release/tension/release, yet the chords (according to some guitar website) are all different. What I mean is it is not simply, say I-V-V-I. How do they use harmony to create this cool feeling? It's so good.
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Chords (from what I can tell without an instrument in front of me) are Ab -> Bb -> Eb and then Eb -> Eb/G -> Ab.
In the key of Eb major, these chords are the IV, V and I of the key.
Usually in this kind of sequence, in modern pop/indie/rock songs at least, this sequence would actually be IV -> V -> vi for the first part instead of IV -> V -> I. The song has an unexpected release by throwing in the I chord early. This is probably what is causing your "back and forth feeling". There's nothing particularly complicated going on - just playing the relative major of the expected chord.
A much more common chord sequence, one which this is a variation on, would be something like this:
Ab -> Bb -> Cm and then Eb -> Eb/G -> Ab (IV -> V -> vi and then I -> I(1st inversion) -> IV).
Note that in the song you linked to, the vi is skipped and replaced by an early I.
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