: What is the relationship between the chords in the bridge of Frank Ocean's Sweet Life? The chords in the bridge to Frank Ocean's Sweet Life are: ||: C#maj9 | C#m7 | Bmaj7 | A#m7 :|| Here's a link to a tutorial of the song

Vote Up Vote Down   0 Reactions

Login to give Reaction!

What key is the bridge?
The bridge modulates; it's not in a single key. For a similar kind of chord motion (similar, but not identical), see the verse of Green Dolphin Street.
[It] sound[s] so good. How is that possible?
The bridge chords are, in effect, a transposition of the chords on the verse, plus C# is a closely enough related key to E, so the ear doesn't have to make too radical an adjustment with the first chord. (C# minor is the relative minor to E major; and C# major is just a hop, skip, and a jump from C# minor.)
Do they have share a relationship in the circle of fifths?
Not really. The C#maj9 to C#min7 is just a major-minor transition, so no circle of fifths needed. The other two chords are best seen as direct modulations. It all works by making use of step-wise motion and common-tones. To try to analyze them in terms of common practice Tonal harmony rules would be misleading.
In general, jazz and popular music make use of common practice voice-leading principles (such as step-wise motion), but much less strictly (such as in the resolution [or even definition] of dissonances) than the music Tonality was developed to describe.

Vote Up Vote Down   0 Reactions

Login to give Reaction!

One thing to keep in mind is many pop music composers do not write with the idea of being able to justify their chord progressions with tonal harmony analysis. Sometimes they just hit a certain sequence they like and go with it.
That being said, in this case both the verse and the bridge of this song make use of a device that has been used in several American songbook standards, major 7th chords going down stepwise with a transitional chord or chords in between. “How High the Moon”, “Midnight Sun” and the bridge of “Watch What Happens” all use this chord progression:
Gmaj7 |////|Gm7 |C7 |Fmaj7 |////| etc.
The verses and bridge both have this same sequence in different keys with a subtle difference, they use only one transitional chord instead of a ii-V. In the verses it is a V7sus4 (B7sus4) to the Emaj7 and in the bridge it is a iim7 (C#m7) to the Bmaj7. In essence it is almost the same chord because you can think of a B7sus4 like a F#m7/B.
The A#m7 is more in line with what I said in my first paragraph, just something that sounded and felt good to the composer. You can call it the relative minor of C#maj7. I don’t hear it as being very functional, it just sounds good.
Another interesting thing to point out is the bridge is a modulation to the dominant (F# and E to C# and B) which is a very common modulation in classical music.