"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.
So tell me dear where is it you go from here
As you curse and peel and bawls in tears(?)
Against the wall and across the hall
Across the wards as we both dissolve
I had this habit of punishing things
That move so fast they grow out wings
That sneak through houses as we barter for sleep
(So just let me out...)
I wish I had you in my lungs
I'd blow you up and block the sun
And save every word
From the brilliant lie we've learned
(Chorus)
Our bodies got so much clearer
With dirty blood and thirty last call(?)
So fill it up spend forever down the wall
I throw it up just to watch it fall
Through the window you look much sweeter...
Through the window you look much sweeter...
Tell me something about a lonely night
Burnt by the steam from a battle lie(?)
But your lottery touch feels lucky enough
Refugee hats from a gin war
I know a place where we can rest tonight
But when the bomb start fun you gotta open your eyes
And I just hope I still have mine
I just hoped that I have
I wish I had one hundred thousand pounds
I'd crack the ground
As you struggle for sound
Leaves from town to town to town
(Chorus)
Our bodies got so much clearer
With dirty blood and thirty last call(?)
So fill it up spend forever down the wall
I throw it up just to watch it fall
Through the window you look much sweeter...
Through the window you look much sweeter...
She has spoken well
Share your body's health
I needed more than I need myself
I know you leave with the king's reprieve
I guess that's just fine by me
Through the window you taste so much sweeter...
Through the window you taste so much sweeter...
As you curse and peel and bawls in tears(?)
Against the wall and across the hall
Across the wards as we both dissolve
I had this habit of punishing things
That move so fast they grow out wings
That sneak through houses as we barter for sleep
(So just let me out...)
I wish I had you in my lungs
I'd blow you up and block the sun
And save every word
From the brilliant lie we've learned
(Chorus)
Our bodies got so much clearer
With dirty blood and thirty last call(?)
So fill it up spend forever down the wall
I throw it up just to watch it fall
Through the window you look much sweeter...
Through the window you look much sweeter...
Tell me something about a lonely night
Burnt by the steam from a battle lie(?)
But your lottery touch feels lucky enough
Refugee hats from a gin war
I know a place where we can rest tonight
But when the bomb start fun you gotta open your eyes
And I just hope I still have mine
I just hoped that I have
I wish I had one hundred thousand pounds
I'd crack the ground
As you struggle for sound
Leaves from town to town to town
(Chorus)
Our bodies got so much clearer
With dirty blood and thirty last call(?)
So fill it up spend forever down the wall
I throw it up just to watch it fall
Through the window you look much sweeter...
Through the window you look much sweeter...
She has spoken well
Share your body's health
I needed more than I need myself
I know you leave with the king's reprieve
I guess that's just fine by me
Through the window you taste so much sweeter...
Through the window you taste so much sweeter...
Lyrics submitted by MaVeRiX
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Fast Car
Tracy Chapman
Tracy Chapman
Dreamwalker
Silent Planet
Silent Planet
I think much like another song “Anti-Matter” (that's also on the same album as this song), this one is also is inspired by a horrifying van crash the band experienced on Nov 3, 2022. This, much like the other track, sounds like it's an extension what they shared while huddled in the wreckage, as they helped frontman Garrett Russell stem the bleeding from his head wound while he was under the temporary effects of a concussion. The track speaks of where the mind goes at the most desperate & desolate of times, when it just about slips away to all but disconnect itself, and the aftermath.
No Surprises
Radiohead
Radiohead
Same ideas expressed in Fitter, Happier are expressed in this song. We're told to strive for some sort of ideal life, which includes getting a good job, being kind to everyone, finding a partner, getting married, having a couple kids, living in a quiet neighborhood in a nice big house, etc. But in Fitter, Happier the narrator(?) realizes that it's incredibly robotic to live this life. People are being used by those in power "like a pig in a cage on antibiotics"--being pacified with things like new phones and cool gadgets and houses while being sucked dry. On No Surprises, the narrator is realizing how this life is killing him slowly. In the video, his helmet is slowly filling up with water, drowning him. But he's so complacent with it. This is a good summary of the song. This boring, "perfect" life foisted upon us by some higher powers (not spiritual, but political, economic, etc. politicians and businessmen, perhaps) is not the way to live. But there is seemingly no way out but death. He'd rather die peacefully right now than live in this cage. While our lives are often shielded, we're in our own protective bubbles, or protective helmets like the one Thom wears, if we look a little harder we can see all the corruption, lies, manipulation, etc. that is going on in the world, often run by huge yet nearly invisible organizations, corporations, and 'leaders'. It's a very hopeless song because it reflects real life.
Blue
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran
“Blue” is a song about a love that is persisting in the discomfort of the person experiencing the emotion. Ed Sheeran reflects on love lost, and although he wishes his former partner find happiness, he cannot but admit his feelings are still very much there. He expresses the realization that he might never find another on this stringed instrumental by Aaron Dessner.
Page
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran
There aren’t many things that’ll hurt more than giving love a chance against your better judgement only to have your heart crushed yet again. Ed Sheeran tells such a story on “Page.” On this track, he is devastated to have lost his lover and even more saddened by the feeling that he may never move on from this.