"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.
[Kimya Dawson]
And the blind lead the blind in the dark trail winding
Turned eyed mimes find finds reminding us
That our compasses are inside, and a GPS is not required for this ride
We will be fine without our eyes closed tight
We will be fine with them open wide
Sit in the back or you can drive
Either way you'll get there in due time
[Aesop Rock]
Sitting bitch, splitting head
Spinning through the zigging hedge
Back into the primal goop
That spit him on the blinking grid
Sipping on his eyeball soup
A pretty mess of I.O.U.'s
Quiet scars, science, art
Tiny parts and giant shoes
[Kimya Dawson]
Cause we all get to the end of life
And the best laid plans can change overnight
And the best made maps will need updates
As earthquakes shift tectonic plates
Clearcut topiary Braille animalia
Molemen navigate for sailors
Stars negate creative failures
Pants romance taken by tailors
[Aesop Rock]
Holy Moses, Hokey Fright
Like ghosts into the strobe light
Rebels play the record once
Mothers pray the rosary twice
He knows uprooting, broken tuning
Poker, pool and okie noodling, Drinking blood and eating brains
Pissing colors free of names
[Kimya Dawson]
Great Danes serenade their jailers
Brittany spaniels speared by whalers
Whopper junior malted milk
Some earworms weave the softest silk
That we don't mind stuck in our heads
Like blankets handmade by our friends
Thermostat for the temporal lobe
Warm it up feel less alone
[Aesop Rock]
Freezing cold and more afraid than normal folk on warmer days
For reasons we may never know
Or know but never chlorinate
A quarter for the closest gorf
20 on his bowling score
Distracted to the point of accident is what we're going for
[Kimya Dawson]
With a lalala and a zigga zigga zow
Harvest corn crops, big toe plow
Can there be a babe without a Paul Bunyan?
Wizards cave wasabi funyuns
I'll hug bobb'ys hugging while landfills fill with huggie jeans
I'm a hoarder hoarding jeggings, stuffed doggies, books and craft-makings
[Aesop Rock]
When home is mostly gross behavior, stolen mail and nosey neighbors
Earthlings in a metal crate, Accelerate with poker faces
Focused on if they woke up in the time for lobby omelets
Then its a pile into the rocket, destination delta quadrant
[Kimya Dawson]
Safety Scissors cut through leather, melted butter, gently severed
Tether clipped
Start to breathe
Undone dishes self release
[Aesop Rock]
This is the collective voice of animals and misfit toys intruding
I'm kidding it's me, what are you doing?
And the blind lead the blind in the dark trail winding
Turned eyed mimes find finds reminding us
That our compasses are inside, and a GPS is not required for this ride
We will be fine without our eyes closed tight
We will be fine with them open wide
Sit in the back or you can drive
Either way you'll get there in due time
[Aesop Rock]
Sitting bitch, splitting head
Spinning through the zigging hedge
Back into the primal goop
That spit him on the blinking grid
Sipping on his eyeball soup
A pretty mess of I.O.U.'s
Quiet scars, science, art
Tiny parts and giant shoes
[Kimya Dawson]
Cause we all get to the end of life
And the best laid plans can change overnight
And the best made maps will need updates
As earthquakes shift tectonic plates
Clearcut topiary Braille animalia
Molemen navigate for sailors
Stars negate creative failures
Pants romance taken by tailors
[Aesop Rock]
Holy Moses, Hokey Fright
Like ghosts into the strobe light
Rebels play the record once
Mothers pray the rosary twice
He knows uprooting, broken tuning
Poker, pool and okie noodling, Drinking blood and eating brains
Pissing colors free of names
[Kimya Dawson]
Great Danes serenade their jailers
Brittany spaniels speared by whalers
Whopper junior malted milk
Some earworms weave the softest silk
That we don't mind stuck in our heads
Like blankets handmade by our friends
Thermostat for the temporal lobe
Warm it up feel less alone
[Aesop Rock]
Freezing cold and more afraid than normal folk on warmer days
For reasons we may never know
Or know but never chlorinate
A quarter for the closest gorf
20 on his bowling score
Distracted to the point of accident is what we're going for
[Kimya Dawson]
With a lalala and a zigga zigga zow
Harvest corn crops, big toe plow
Can there be a babe without a Paul Bunyan?
Wizards cave wasabi funyuns
I'll hug bobb'ys hugging while landfills fill with huggie jeans
I'm a hoarder hoarding jeggings, stuffed doggies, books and craft-makings
[Aesop Rock]
When home is mostly gross behavior, stolen mail and nosey neighbors
Earthlings in a metal crate, Accelerate with poker faces
Focused on if they woke up in the time for lobby omelets
Then its a pile into the rocket, destination delta quadrant
[Kimya Dawson]
Safety Scissors cut through leather, melted butter, gently severed
Tether clipped
Start to breathe
Undone dishes self release
[Aesop Rock]
This is the collective voice of animals and misfit toys intruding
I'm kidding it's me, what are you doing?
Lyrics submitted by legislacerator
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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.
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,
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.
Punchline
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran sings about missing his former partner and learning important life lessons in the process on “Punchline.” This track tells a story of battling to get rid of emotions for a former lover, whom he now realized might not have loved him the same way. He’s now caught between accepting that fact and learning life lessons from it and going back to beg her for another chance.