"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.
Hey
The world is ending
Don't you even know?
Well how did evolution get so slow?
The grass don't even grow
Say
You buy and sell and throw it all away
And hope it never gets to you too late
This plan is gonna blow
Everything is better
And everything is right
And everything comes together
And everything's done tonight
If you cover me
But the music's much too loud
To hear this alarm sound
Too loud, will you cover me?
But the emptiness I've found
Can't keep me on the ground
The ground, can you cover me?
Hey
What's the point in trying to get away?
The neverending search to find your escape
It's gonna leave you cold
Everything is better
And everything is right
And everything comes together
And everything's done tonight
If you cover me
But the music's much too loud
To hear this alarm sound
Too loud, will you cover me?
But the emptiness I've found
Can't keep me on the ground
The ground, can you cover me?
This is the last breath I
I think I'll ever take
This is the last move I
I think I'll ever make
Will there be a chance now to
Figure this out?
And be free tonight
But the music's much too loud
To hear this alarm sound
Too loud, will you cover me?
But the emptiness I've found
Can't keep me on the ground
The ground, can you cover me?
The music's much too loud
To hear this alarm sound
Too loud, will you cover me?
The world is ending
Don't you even know?
Well how did evolution get so slow?
The grass don't even grow
Say
You buy and sell and throw it all away
And hope it never gets to you too late
This plan is gonna blow
Everything is better
And everything is right
And everything comes together
And everything's done tonight
If you cover me
But the music's much too loud
To hear this alarm sound
Too loud, will you cover me?
But the emptiness I've found
Can't keep me on the ground
The ground, can you cover me?
Hey
What's the point in trying to get away?
The neverending search to find your escape
It's gonna leave you cold
Everything is better
And everything is right
And everything comes together
And everything's done tonight
If you cover me
But the music's much too loud
To hear this alarm sound
Too loud, will you cover me?
But the emptiness I've found
Can't keep me on the ground
The ground, can you cover me?
This is the last breath I
I think I'll ever take
This is the last move I
I think I'll ever make
Will there be a chance now to
Figure this out?
And be free tonight
But the music's much too loud
To hear this alarm sound
Too loud, will you cover me?
But the emptiness I've found
Can't keep me on the ground
The ground, can you cover me?
The music's much too loud
To hear this alarm sound
Too loud, will you cover me?
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The comment about this song being about asking for God's forgiveness and it being after "Mistakes We Knew We Were Making" kinda makes sense of the line "The list goes on and on..." at the end of M.W.K.W.W.M. This song is asking for forgiveness for that "mistake" as well as the ongoing list of things he has done and does do wrong. That line does not seem to fit with the rest of the lyrics of M.W.K.W.W.M otherwise, IMO.