Black Trees is the closer, 129 BPM, 5:52. Krumhansl returned C minor at 0.820, but the whole-song chord-root counter has Eb at 78 windows and Cm at 55, so the harmonic center is Eb major with vi (Cm) hovering close. The song floats between the relative major and the relative minor without picking one, which is a common indie-shoegaze move and a fitting close for an album that opened on a Db pedal in Sails.
Black Trees · Hooray For Earth
Eb major (or C minor) · 129 BPM · 5:52 · longest track on the album
Whole-song 2-second chord-root count: Eb 78, C 55, Ab 14, Bb 10, F 6, D 5. If C minor: bIII 78, i 55, bVI 14, bVII 10, iv 6. If Eb major: I 78, vi 55, IV 14, V 10, ii 6. Both fit. The Eb reading gives cleaner functional labels (V, IV, ii diatonic) while the C-minor reading needs 'bIII' as the top chord which does not usually carry the phrase in tonal music. On the balance of chord function counts, the data leans Eb major with vi (Cm) as the strongest secondary center. Krumhansl chose C minor at 0.820 based on the pitch-profile correlation, and the profile of C minor and Eb major share almost every note, so this ambiguity is genuine, not a measurement flaw.
favorite momentThe tie itself. Two keys sharing the same pitch-collection each fitting the data differently.
Vocal parks on Eb (22.7%) and G (22.5%) · nearly tied
Vocal histogram: Eb 22.7%, G 22.5%, C 17.2%, F 10.1%, Bb 8.2%. Two vocal pitches nearly tie at the top. In Eb major, Eb is the root and G is the major 3rd. Together the singer's top two notes name the tonic triad's root and third. This is the note-set the singer chooses to close the album with: he names the major mode without ambiguity. If read as C minor instead, the same two notes are the b3 (Eb) and the 5th (G), which spells the same triad from the vi perspective, so the vocal fits either reading equally. The C at 17.2% is the third-most-used pitch: root of vi if Eb major, root of i if C minor, either way the shared pitch of both keys.
favorite momentVocal Eb-G-C, the pitches shared by both keys. The singer names the ambiguity without resolving it.
Bass leans on Ab (23.7%) and F (16.2%), IV and ii of Eb
Bass histogram: Ab 23.7%, F 16.2%, E 13.4%, Eb 12.1%, A 8.8%. In Eb major the top-two bass notes are IV (Ab) and ii (F). The tonic Eb sits fourth at 12.1%. This is another Hooray For Earth song where the tonic is not the anchor of the bass work. The E natural at 13.4% is chromatic in both Eb major and C minor (E-natural is not in either diatonic scale), so it functions as a chromatic passing tone or an approach note. The A at 8.8% is similarly chromatic. Together these two chromatic bass notes add movement over static diatonic chord shells above.
favorite momentIV (Ab) and ii (F) leading the bass, with the tonic Eb only in fourth place. The floor never lands on the home chord.