"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.
Well, when I'm lyin' in my bed at night
I don't want to grow up
Nothin' ever seems to turn out right
I don't want to grow up
How do you move in a world of fog
That's always changing things?
Makes me wish that I could be a dog
Well, when I see the price that you pay
I don't want to grow up
I don't ever want to be that way
I don't want to grow up
Seems like folks turn into things they they'd never want
The only thing to live for is today
I'm gonna put a hole in my T.V. set
I don't want to grow up
Open up the medicine chest
And I don't want to grow up
I don't want to have to shout it out
I don't want my hair to fall out
I don't want to be filled with doubt
I don't want to be a good boy scout
I don't want to have to learn to count
I don't want to have the biggest amount
I don't want to grow up
Well, when I see my parents fight
I don't want to grow up
They all go out and drinking all night
And I don't want to grow up
I'd rather say here in my room
Nothin' out there but sad and gloom
I don't want to live in a big old tomb on Grand Street, hoo
When I see the five o'clock news
I don't want to grow up
Comb their hair and shine their shoes
I don't want to grow up
Stay around in my old hometown
I don't want to put no money down
I don't want to get me a big old loan
Work them fingers to the bone
I don't want to float a broom
Fall in love and get married then boom
How the hell did I get here so soon?
I don't want to grow up
I don't want to grow up
Nothin' ever seems to turn out right
I don't want to grow up
How do you move in a world of fog
That's always changing things?
Makes me wish that I could be a dog
Well, when I see the price that you pay
I don't want to grow up
I don't ever want to be that way
I don't want to grow up
Seems like folks turn into things they they'd never want
The only thing to live for is today
I'm gonna put a hole in my T.V. set
I don't want to grow up
Open up the medicine chest
And I don't want to grow up
I don't want to have to shout it out
I don't want my hair to fall out
I don't want to be filled with doubt
I don't want to be a good boy scout
I don't want to have to learn to count
I don't want to have the biggest amount
I don't want to grow up
Well, when I see my parents fight
I don't want to grow up
They all go out and drinking all night
And I don't want to grow up
I'd rather say here in my room
Nothin' out there but sad and gloom
I don't want to live in a big old tomb on Grand Street, hoo
When I see the five o'clock news
I don't want to grow up
Comb their hair and shine their shoes
I don't want to grow up
Stay around in my old hometown
I don't want to put no money down
I don't want to get me a big old loan
Work them fingers to the bone
I don't want to float a broom
Fall in love and get married then boom
How the hell did I get here so soon?
I don't want to grow up
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Fast Car
Tracy Chapman
Tracy Chapman
The Night We Met
Lord Huron
Lord Huron
This is a hauntingly beautiful song about introspection, specifically about looking back at a relationship that started bad and ended so poorly, that the narrator wants to go back to the very beginning and tell himself to not even travel down that road. I believe that the relationship started poorly because of the lines:
"Take me back to the night we met:When the night was full of terrors: And your eyes were filled with tears: When you had not touched me yet"
So, the first night was not a great start, but the narrator pursued the relationship and eventually both overcame the rough start to fall in love with each other:
"I had all and then most of you"
Like many relationships that turn sour, it was not a quick decline, but a gradual one where the narrator and their partner fall out of love and gradually grow apart
"Some and now none of you"
Losing someone who was once everything in your world, who you could confide in, tell your secrets to, share all the most intimate parts of your life, to being strangers with that person is probably one of the most painful experiences a person can go through. So Painful, the narrator wants to go back in time and tell himself to not even pursue the relationship.
This was the perfect song for "13 Reasons Why"
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.
Magical
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran
How would you describe the feeling of being in love? For Ed Sheeran, the word is “Magical.” in HIS three-minute album opener, he makes an attempt to capture the beauty and delicacy of true love with words. He describes the magic of it all over a bright Pop song produced by Aaron Dessner.
Amazing
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran tells a story of unsuccessfully trying to feel “Amazing.” This track is about the being weighed down by emotional stress despite valiant attempts to find some positivity in the situation. This track was written by Ed Sheeran from the perspective of his friend. From the track, we see this person fall deeper into the negative thoughts and slide further down the path of mental torment with every lyric.
it being about suicide makes a lot of sense with the "medicine chest" line. I think it's also about a few other things: a sentimental (somewhat less dark) recollection of being little and powerless in a big scary world. A reminder of the childhood innocence that we all want back. An affirmation that children really hold the truth and grown-ups mess it by conforming, by settling ("seems that folks turn into things they never want to be").
I really love this song but it's hard to really pin down why it clicks so much with me. All I know is that I heard it and after every line my eyes got wide and I gave a knowing nod.