"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.
Slung from the hoary heavens
With disbelief suspended
On a shining pendulum of faith
Hanging half awake and dreaming
Of burning cities gleaming
Beneath a sky of ash and slate
And as the fuselage goes dark
You're thinking ain't it funny
Still owe some people money
It's hard to keep from laughing
No smoking sign is flashing
Your mask descends without a sound
Your starboard hope receding
Even the sky is bleeding
You sure could use a smoke right now
And all the people wave their arms
But you can't hear them screaming
You're floating through the ceiling
There's no gravity that can bring you down again
It's almost over now
And you hope they don't wake you up
Now the sun is shining
Somewhere the sun is shining
But it sure ain't shining on you now
With disbelief suspended
On a shining pendulum of faith
Hanging half awake and dreaming
Of burning cities gleaming
Beneath a sky of ash and slate
And as the fuselage goes dark
You're thinking ain't it funny
Still owe some people money
It's hard to keep from laughing
No smoking sign is flashing
Your mask descends without a sound
Your starboard hope receding
Even the sky is bleeding
You sure could use a smoke right now
And all the people wave their arms
But you can't hear them screaming
You're floating through the ceiling
There's no gravity that can bring you down again
It's almost over now
And you hope they don't wake you up
Now the sun is shining
Somewhere the sun is shining
But it sure ain't shining on you now
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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"
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.
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.
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.
The first line has two meanings: it refers to the plane falling from the sky, and a a "fall from grace". Considering the following two lines, I'd say it's because of a lack of faith. Black Box Recording is about someone like Lucifer who sins and falls away from God, out of the heavens. The rest of the song describes the incident and gives a bit of information about the narrator, like that he owes money and smokes. The song ends with death, and not really wanting to be alive, either though the sun isn't shining on the narrator.