Our House | Chords + Lyrics
Intro
||: C | Gm | Dm | Fm (G Ab Bb) :||
Verse 1
| C | Gm |
Father wears his Sunday best.
| Dm | Fm |
Mother’s tired she needs a rest, the kids are playing up downstairs.
| C | Gm |
Sister’s sighing in her sleep.
| Dm | Fm |
Brother’s got a date to keep, he can’t hang around.
Chorus 1
| D Am | Em Gm |
Our house, in the middle of our street
| D Am | Em Gm |
Our house, in the middle of our
Verse 2
Our house it has a crowd.
There’s always something happening and it’s usually quite loud.
Our mum she’s so house-proud.
Nothing ever slows her down and a mess is not allowed.
Chorus 2
Our house, in the middle of our street
Our house, in the middle of our…
Chorus 3 (new key)
| B F#m | C#m Em |
Our house, in the middle of our street
| B F#m | C#m Em |
Our house, in the middle of our… (Something tells you that you’ve got to get away from it)
Verse 3
Father gets up late for work.
Mother has to iron his shirt, then she sends the kids to school.
Sees them off with a small kiss.
| Dm | Fm (F#) |
She’s the one they’re going to miss, in lots of ways.
Breakdown
| G F#m | A Bm | G F#m | A Bm |
Solo
||: C | Gm | Dm | Fm (G Ab Bb) :||
Chorus 4 (same as chorus 1)
Our house, in the middle of our street
Our house, in the middle of our…
Middle 8
| C |
I remember way back then when everything was true and when
| Gm | Dm | Fm |
We would have such a very good time such a fine time, such a happy time.
| C |
And I remember how we’d play simply waste the day away
| Gm | Dm | Fm |
Then we’d say nothing would come between us, two dreamers.
Verse 4
Father wears his Sunday best.
Mother’s tired she needs a rest, the kids are playing up downstairs.
Sister’s sighing in her sleep
Brother’s got a date to keep, he can’t hang around
Outro chorus
| D Am | Em Gm |
Our house, in the middle of our street
| D Am | Em Gm |
Our house, in the middle of our…
| B F#m | C#m Em |
Our house, in the middle of our street
| B F#m | C#m Em |
Our house, in the middle of our…
| C Gm | Dm Fm |
Our house, was our castle and our keep
| C Gm | Dm Fm |
Our house, in the middle of our street
| D Am | Em Gm |
Our house, that was where we used to sleep
| D Am | Em Gm |
Our house, in the middle of our street
| B F#m | C#m Em | to fade
Our house, in the middle of our street.
Our House Chords: Understanding Key Changes and Modal Interchange
Our House by Madness features just four chords, and the choice of these chords is truly unique—something I’ve never seen before.
Because they don’t all belong to one key, describing them is more about interpretation than absolute truth. Here’s what I believe they are:
C – Gm – Dm serves two functions simultaneously. The C chord is both chord I in C and chord V in F. Gm is II in F, and Dm is VI in F.
The final chord, Fm, is Im in F but also functions as IVm in C.
These four chords demonstrate modal interchange, with C acting as both I and V and Fm replacing F. To learn more about progressions like this, check out my chord progression course.
The rest of Our House’s chords follow a similar pattern, simply transposed to different keys:
- Key of C/F: C – Gm – Dm – Fm
- Key of D/G: D – Am – Em – Gm
- Key of B/E: B – F#m – C#m – Em
These progressions are used for the choruses, while the verse stays in C/F with one bar per chord, rather than sharing a bar.
There’s also a breakdown before the solo with this progression:
| G F#m | A Bm | G F#m | A Bm |
In this case, G and F#m function as IV – III, with A acting as the V and Bm as the VI, making the progression completely diatonic to the key of Bm.
As the saying goes, there’s a fine line between genius and, in this case, literally madness!
Here’s a chord chart.
Our House Chord Chart | PDF + iReal Pro Download
Should you want to download this chart, here’s a PDF: Our House chord chart PDF.
This chord chart was created using iReal Pro, here’s a link to that file: Our House iReal Pro. Using this and the iRealPro app, you can change the key.
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