"Fast car" is kind of a continuation of Bruce Springsteen's "Born to Run." It has all the clawing your way to a better life, but in this case the protagonist never makes it with her love; in fact she is dragged back down by him.
There is still an amazing amount of hope and will in the lyrics; and the lyrics themselve rank and easy five. If only music was stronger it would be one of those great radio songs that you hear once a week 20 years after it was released. The imagery is almost tear-jerking ("City lights lay out before us", "Speeds so fast felt like I was drunk"), and the idea of starting from nothing and just driving and working and denigrating yourself for a chance at being just above poverty, then losing in the end is just painful and inspiring at the same time.
If love was this door, I've slammed it in your face, ran out to the balcony and jumped to the ground.
I've sponged the place in gasoline before igniting the foundation and burning it to ashes.
to ashes...
If love was a plane, then I've flown it to the highest point, but then let it come crashing down to earth.
Fasten your seatbelts, we're going down now.
If love was a child then I've scolded him to no end.
He's been filled the nothing inside,
until the day when bullets filled the emptiness inside him from his own gun, from his own hands.
Love became the pill that stopped his shakes.
He's never crossed a man's face so hard.
Love became the pill that put him under.
He's never scratched a man's heart so deep.
If love was born to die then I've buried him six feet under.
if you take the one and minus him by two, you've got the end of the world before its even begun.
Although I've murdered his whole heart, I can revive him with my own two hands.
I've sponged the place in gasoline before igniting the foundation and burning it to ashes.
to ashes...
If love was a plane, then I've flown it to the highest point, but then let it come crashing down to earth.
Fasten your seatbelts, we're going down now.
If love was a child then I've scolded him to no end.
He's been filled the nothing inside,
until the day when bullets filled the emptiness inside him from his own gun, from his own hands.
Love became the pill that stopped his shakes.
He's never crossed a man's face so hard.
Love became the pill that put him under.
He's never scratched a man's heart so deep.
If love was born to die then I've buried him six feet under.
if you take the one and minus him by two, you've got the end of the world before its even begun.
Although I've murdered his whole heart, I can revive him with my own two hands.
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Fast Car
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“I overthink and have trouble sleepin’ / All purpose gone and don’t have a reason / And there’s no doctor to stop this bleedin’ / So I left home and jumped in the deep end,” Ed Sheeran sings in verse one. He continues by adding that this person is feeling the weight of having disappointed his father and doesn’t have any friends to rely on in this difficult moment. In the second verse, Ed sings about the role of grief in his friend’s plight and his dwindling faith in prayer. “Saturday night is givin’ me a reason to rely on the strobe lights / The lifeline of a promise in a shot glass, and I’ll take that / If you’re givin’ out love from a plastic bag,” Ed sings on the chorus, as his friend turns to new vices in hopes of feeling better.
This is definitely a religious song, as Still Remains is a Christian band. I'm not sure if these guys or Catholic or not, but I think you're theory about contraception is a little off.
There is no such thing as negative population growth. No society has a "trend" to have less kids either. As a species we have come to a realization that overpopulation is an environmental threat to our existence -- so like you believe, we DO really need to have less kids. Birth rates in most parts of the world are higher than ever.
Do a little research, the population on Earth is growing exponentially. It took nearly "forever" for the Earth's population to reach 1 billion. During the entire BCE era the population remained constant, through the "hunting and gathering" and "agricultural revolution" stages. When the industrial revolution came, population has been rapidly increasing and out of control.
For this reason, I cannot believe that they would actually be singing about how we're "extincting ourselves as a species by not reproducing enough."