"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.
Rise of the One
The dark iconoclast
Forging a cult of fear
With legions unsurpassed
Shouting the word
With vicious tongues of fire
Born of illusion and deceit
Fiendish soul of a liar
The chaos unseen rips
The midnight sky
Infernal machines arise
Flesh and steel collide
We are strong
We will stand and fight
We are strong
We will stand and fight
With rage we ride into the flames
Striking with spears of hate,
At the heart where evil reigns
Holding the line from the charge
Of armored steeds
Gather around this deadly ground,
Come watch the war god bleed.
The chaos unseen rips
The midnight sky
Infernal machines arise
Flesh and steel collide
We are strong
We will stand and fight
We are strong
We will stand and fight
Victory of death, only time will tell
Synthetic resurrection,
From the heart of hell
Slowly they fall, as we watch
The daylight die
We spit and curse this hallowed earth
With our final battle cry,
The chaos unseen rips
The midnight sky
Infernal machines arise
Flesh and steel collide
We are strong
We will stand and fight
We are strong
We will stand and fight
The dark iconoclast
Forging a cult of fear
With legions unsurpassed
Shouting the word
With vicious tongues of fire
Born of illusion and deceit
Fiendish soul of a liar
The chaos unseen rips
The midnight sky
Infernal machines arise
Flesh and steel collide
We are strong
We will stand and fight
We are strong
We will stand and fight
With rage we ride into the flames
Striking with spears of hate,
At the heart where evil reigns
Holding the line from the charge
Of armored steeds
Gather around this deadly ground,
Come watch the war god bleed.
The chaos unseen rips
The midnight sky
Infernal machines arise
Flesh and steel collide
We are strong
We will stand and fight
We are strong
We will stand and fight
Victory of death, only time will tell
Synthetic resurrection,
From the heart of hell
Slowly they fall, as we watch
The daylight die
We spit and curse this hallowed earth
With our final battle cry,
The chaos unseen rips
The midnight sky
Infernal machines arise
Flesh and steel collide
We are strong
We will stand and fight
We are strong
We will stand and fight
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More Featured Meanings
Fast Car
Tracy Chapman
Tracy Chapman
Holiday
Bee Gees
Bee Gees
@[Diderik:33655] "Your a holiday!" Was a popular term used in the 50s/60s to compliment someone on their all around. For example, not only are they beautiful, but they are fun and kind too ... just an all around "holiday".
I think your first comment is closer to being accurate. The singer/song writers state "Millions of eyes can see, yet why am i so blind!? When the someone else is me, its unkind its unkind". I believe hes referring to the girl toying with him and using him. He wants something deeper with her, thats why he allows himself to be as a puppet (even though for her fun and games) as long as it makes her happy. But he knows deep down that she doesnt really want to be serious with him and thats what makes him.
When We Were Young
Blink-182
Blink-182
This is a sequel to 2001's "Reckless Abandon", and features the band looking back on their clumsy youth fondly.
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.
Just A Little Lovin'
Dusty Springfield
Dusty Springfield
I don't think it's necessarily about sex. It's about wanting to start the day with some love and affection. Maybe a warm cuddle. I'm not alone in interpreting it that way! For example:
"'Just a Little Lovin’ is a timeless country song originally recorded by Eddy Arnold in 1954. The song, written by Eddie Miller and Jimmy Campbell, explores the delicate nuances of love and showcases Arnold’s emotive vocals. It delves into the universal theme of love and how even the smallest gesture of affection can have a profound impact on our lives." https://oldtimemusic.com/the-meaning-behind-the-song-just-a-little-lovin-by-eddy-arnold/
Iconoclasm is the deliberate destruction of religious artifacts. However the race of machines are described as Iconoclasts towards all of humanity and it's beliefs. The song is most likely from the perspective of the machines as they begin to rise against humans. Or it could be from both perspectives.
Now the important stuff: THIS SONG IS EPIC! It begins with kind of a new "Oculus Ex Inferni" but it's such an epic battle song. That chorus slowly becomes very addictive. Great title track and way to start the album
Lyrics for this song remind me a lot of the Mass Effect series. Not a perfect correlation, obviously, but some of it is pretty close - the pre-chorus is basically the ME3 introduction. :D
Hmm interesting thought, yes the reapers do seem to fit into this category
I'd say this song is really the taking off point of the album; it could be interpreted from either side.
The chorus seems to be the humans rallying to take on the robots, and the stanza before that (Infernal machines arise, flesh and steel collide) is the start of this epic battle. Human v robot. Intelligence v AI.
The next stanza is more into the battle, as it heats up, the "armored mounts" could be either the robots' or the humans' mounts covered in protective armor. "Striking with spear of hate; at the heart where evil reigns" is pretty obvious that the humans despise these robots, or vice versa, and they look to take out the very origin of it.
The next stanza seems to lend victory to the humans, but again everything in these lyrics is very open-sided so it could be interpreted from either side.
The line "synthetic resurrection" makes me think that this is not the first, or only, battle humans will fight against these robots; that perhaps they have a way of either creating more robots or resurrecting the ones they've already fought.