"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.
Now the day has come.
We are forsaken this time.
We lived our lives in our paradise,
as gods we shaped the world around.
No borderlines we'd stay behind,
though balance is something fragile.
While we thought we were gaining,
we would turn back the tide, it still slips away.
Our time has run out, our future has died,
there's no more escape.
Now the day has come,
we are forsaken,
there's no time anymore.
Life will pass us by,
we are forsaken,
we're the last of our kind.
The sacrifice was much too high,
our greed just made us all go blind.
We tried to hide what we feared inside.
Today is the end of tomorrow.
We are forsaken this time.
We lived our lives in our paradise,
as gods we shaped the world around.
No borderlines we'd stay behind,
though balance is something fragile.
While we thought we were gaining,
we would turn back the tide, it still slips away.
Our time has run out, our future has died,
there's no more escape.
Now the day has come,
we are forsaken,
there's no time anymore.
Life will pass us by,
we are forsaken,
we're the last of our kind.
The sacrifice was much too high,
our greed just made us all go blind.
We tried to hide what we feared inside.
Today is the end of tomorrow.
Lyrics submitted by Mord Sith, edited by gravethief13, sirchedge
Forsaken Lyrics as written by Sharon J. Den Adel Robert Westerholt
Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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This is one of my favorite songs. https://fnfgo.io
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Captures the rollercoaster of emotions of feeling lost while loving someone who is not there for you, feeling let down and abandoned while waiting for a lover. Lost with no direction, "Now I'm up in the air with the rain in my hair, Nowhere to go, I can go anywhere"
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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.
If this helps guys, this is from the "Songtexts Explained" column in the Within Temptation fanzine, written by Sharon:
The songtext of ‘Forsaken’ depicts a situation the world might, or will, find itself in one day. To envision this kind of situation, you should watch the movie ‘The Day After Tomorrow’ first, and listen to ‘Forsaken’ afterwards. The songtext really speaks for itself, but watching this movie will enable you to create a visual image to go with it.
‘Forsaken’ tells about the fact that there will be a moment that nature’s elements will turn against us. We have a habit of bending everything to our wills, but not everything we do is without counter-reaction or consequences. Nature itself is, of course, changing too, we’re just speeding this process up at lightning speed; in the wrong direction.
There is the phenomenon of global warming, that makes the Northpole’s ice cap melt, which, in turn, makes the sea level rise. The direct effect of this ice melting is that the polar bears are now facing extinction, and Holland gets to lie below the water level more and more. These are only 2 examples. Unfortunately, there are many more.
Basically, ‘Forsaken’ comes down to the fact that humankind has been changing the climate dramatically, thinking only of their own economic gain and not about nature nor about the fact that this mistake might turn out to be fatal. The moment they’ll want to change, because there are no other options left, it will be too late. People experience this as nature abandoning them, but in fact we are the ones that abandoned our Mother Earth.
I’d say: look up the term ‘Kyoto treaty’ on Google, and you’ll find lots of information on this subject. You will be able to form your own opinion on this treaty, based on the information provided by its supporters and opponents.
Kind regards, Sharon
It is very much a song depicting a bleak future caused by our relentless manipulation of the world around us. The reckless destruction of the natural environments we inhabit will return to haunt us in the future as nature forsakes us and our existence. Our greed and blindness bring this about and the little sacrifices we must make to attempt to remedy this are too expensive for the corporate mind and the governments of this world.
Great song.