One note does most of the work. The singer keeps landing on C#, his most-used pitch on the track. The chords walk B down to A underneath it, so that same C# turns from a tense 9 into an easy major 3rd. The notation below is transcribed bar for bar from the published MIDI (vocal, guitar, keys, bass), the lyric set under the vocal staff and the interval each syllable makes against the chord printed over the notehead, so you can watch a single pitch get relabeled as the band moves beneath it.
Why it sounds like Hooray For Earth
Three habits stack up to make the sound.
One, the melody parks and the floor walks. The singer holds a single pitch while the bass moves under it, so C# reads as the 5th of F#, the 9 of B, and the 3rd of A without ever changing note. The voice sits still and the harmony travels, which is why the same syllable keeps collecting a new number over it in the staves below.
Two, the voice supplies the 3rd the guitars leave out. The band plays bare fifths, B5, F#5, A5, C#5, with no third in any chord. The whole major-or-minor color of the song lives in the vocal line. His D# over the B chord is the major third the power chord withholds. The moment the voice steps out in the outro, the song goes hollow on purpose.
Three, the cadence lifts by a whole step. Phrases close A up to B, the flat-seven Mixolydian lift, with no F# dominant pulling home. Nothing snaps shut. The resolution is the 9 easing down into a 3rd as the chord changes under the held note, relaxation by common tone, the pitch staying put while its job changes. That open, unlatched lift is the cadence you hear as the classic Hooray sound.
Reading the numbers over each vocal note: 1 root, 3 major third, 5 fifth, 7 major seventh, 9 ninth, 13 thirteenth (the sixth), b7 / b3 the lowered seventh and third. Every label is the interval that sung note makes against the chord sounding beneath it in the staff directly below.
Say Enough · Hooray For Earth
B major · verse · one held C# turns from a 9 over B into the 3rd of A
The verse runs Aadd9 (♭VII), F#m7 (v), Badd9 (I) as the bass walks A, F#, B.
In the keys and guitar MIDI, A natural is everywhere and A# barely shows up at all.
That flat seventh is what turns plain B major into B Mixolydian.
The singer keeps landing on C#, his most-used note on the whole track at 24 percent.
Over the B chord that C# is the 9, and it rubs against the root.
The chord drops to A, and the same C# becomes the major 3rd of A, easy and consonant.
He never moved his note, the chord moved under him, and the feeling went from tense to settled.
The v chord is F#m7, a minor v, so no leading tone pulls home and the verse hangs unresolved.
Read the numbers over the vocal staff, the line lives on 1 and 9 across the A and B chords, then settles onto the 3 the instant the chord turns to Badd9.
That slide from 9 to 3 is the cadence of the verse, a release by common tone with the pitch held and its interval renamed.
favorite momentThe held C#: a 9 over B, a major 3rd over A, one note that flips when the chord moves.
Verse staves are transcribed bar for bar from the published MIDI (pub.mid, bars 14-17). The vocal staff carries the engraved lyric under the notes and the interval label over each note, read against the chord tag on that same staff; guitar and bass carry rendered tab staves in standard tuning (bass tab is 4-string EADG).
B major · chorus · the hook starts on ii, C#m7, away from home
The chorus opens on C#m7 (ii), so it starts one chord away from home.
C# was the singer's home note through the whole verse, and now the band builds a chord on it.
His most-sung pitch becomes a chord root, the one spot where it fully relaxes.
In the published MIDI the chorus guitars play bare fifths, B5, F#5, A5, C#5, with no 3rd in any of them.
The singer supplies the missing 3rd himself, his D# over B5 is the major third the guitar refuses to play.
Under Pray I'm something in your heart he circles C#, D#, and F#, the bright top of a B chord.
He sings it major, the floor answers in bare fifths and borrowed shades, and that gap gives the hook its hurt.
Every loop closes with A (♭VII) walking a whole step up into B (I), the plain Mixolydian lift.
The numbers over the vocal show the 3 landing first on the B bar, the exact tone the power chord withholds, then the line climbs to a 7 over the A chord, the brightest color on the page.
It lands the phrase on the ♭3 over C#m7, the one shaded note that keeps the hook from turning fully sunny.
favorite momentThe ii chord opening the hook, so the singer's home note C# finally becomes a chord root.
Chorus staves are transcribed from the published MIDI (pub.mid, bars 25-28); the guitar sustains land on beat 2 after a pickup stab. Lyric alignment follows the whisper transcript at 0:57, each syllable seated on its own note. The vocal staff carries the engraved lyric under the notes and the interval label over each note; guitar and bass carry rendered tab staves.
B major · outro · the flat-seven cadence and a lone dominant pointing away
In the published MIDI the outro loops B5 (I), A5 (♭VII), F#5 (v), all bare fifths with no 3rd.
A up to B is the Mixolydian cadence out in the open, a whole step with no leading tone.
The vocals sit out, so nobody supplies a 3rd and the last minute of the song stays hollow on purpose.
The Racy chord chart closes the sequence B, A, B7 (I7), the one dominant seventh in the song, and it points at E, the IV.
So the last harmonic gesture leans away from the tonic instead of parking on it.
Nothing resolves through a real V to I, and the song ends floating the way the verses did.
This is the whole cadence idea in one gesture, motion by whole step with the color left open, so the loop lifts away from home and keeps pointing outward.
That open lift, a chorus that resolves by feel while the harmony stays unlatched, is the Hooray For Earth signature this sheet has been tracing all along.
favorite momentThe empty outro fifths: the singer leaves, the 3rd leaves with him, and the loop runs hollow to the fade.
Outro staves are transcribed from the published MIDI (pub.mid, bars 109-111); the vocal track is silent there, so the vocal staff rests, marked tacet. The B7 closing chord is cited from the Racy chord chart; the MIDI voicings stay bare fifths. Guitar and bass carry rendered tab staves.