"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.
Faster than a bullet
Terrifying scream
Enraged and full of anger
He's half man and half machine
Rides the Metal Monster
Breathing smoke and fire
Closing in with vengeance soaring high
He is the Painkiller
This is the Painkiller
Planets devastated
Mankind's on its knees
A saviour comes from out the skies
In answer to their pleas
Through boiling clouds of thunder
Blasting bolts of steel
Evils going under deadly wheels
He is the Painkiller
This is the Painkiller
Faster than a lazer bullet
Louder than an atom bomb
Chromium plated boiling metal
Brighter than a thousand suns
Flying high on rapture
Stronger free and brave
Nevermore encaptured
They've been brought back from the grave
With mankind resurrected
Forever to survive
Returns from Armageddon to the skies
He is the Painkiller
This is the Painkiller
Wings of steel Painkiller
Deadly wheels Painkiller
Terrifying scream
Enraged and full of anger
He's half man and half machine
Rides the Metal Monster
Breathing smoke and fire
Closing in with vengeance soaring high
He is the Painkiller
This is the Painkiller
Planets devastated
Mankind's on its knees
A saviour comes from out the skies
In answer to their pleas
Through boiling clouds of thunder
Blasting bolts of steel
Evils going under deadly wheels
He is the Painkiller
This is the Painkiller
Faster than a lazer bullet
Louder than an atom bomb
Chromium plated boiling metal
Brighter than a thousand suns
Flying high on rapture
Stronger free and brave
Nevermore encaptured
They've been brought back from the grave
With mankind resurrected
Forever to survive
Returns from Armageddon to the skies
He is the Painkiller
This is the Painkiller
Wings of steel Painkiller
Deadly wheels Painkiller
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Fast Car
Tracy Chapman
Tracy Chapman
Bron-Y-Aur Stomp
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Led Zeppelin
This is about bronies. They communicate by stomping.
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.
Gentle Hour
Yo La Tengo
Yo La Tengo
This song was originally written by a guy called Peter Gutteridge. He was one of the founders of the "Dunedin Sound" a musical scene in the south of New Zealand in the early 80s. From there it was covered by "The Clean" one of the early bands of that scene (he had originally been a member of in it's early days, writing a couple of their best early songs). The Dunedin sound, and the Clean became popular on american college radio in the mid to late 80s. I guess Yo La Tengo heard that version.
Great version of a great song,
American Town
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran shares a short story of reconnecting with an old flame on “American Town.” The track is about a holiday Ed Sheeran spends with his countrywoman who resides in America. The two are back together after a long period apart, and get around to enjoying a bunch of fun activities while rekindling the flames of their romance.
Even though this is a Judas Priest cover, that doesn't mean that Death and Schuldiner couldn't use it for their own artistic vision. There is no Death song with this kind of energy, so IMO this is the perfect song to "kill the pain." See what I mean?
I think that rumour has truth behind it.