"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.
We'll keep our eyes so close to the sun
That we cannot see all the damage we've done
To not just ourselves
There is no way we'll make it
I know we're going under as well
And we'll keep our ears so close to the beat
That we cannot hear you
And we won't move our feet
To the sound of it all going down in flames
Let's put this fire out
Let's put this fire out
Well, well
We're a heartbeat away from hell
I know, and it's easy enough to tell
You know we are a heartbeat away
From having no heartbeat at all
So let's keep the taste locked up in our teeth
We won't let it seep out
No, we won't let it leak
You can't let it show
So maybe you just play your role
In making sure that nobody knows
Well, I bet we get caught up in every way
She said, "I read it on your face all the same."
Let's get so fixed on our problems and stay
Let's put this fire out
Let's put it out
Well, well
We're a heartbeat away from hell
I know, and it's easy enough to tell
You know we are a heartbeat away
From having no heartbeat at all (x2)
Just say you need it just as badly as me
All we ever wanted was to be happy
And just say you need it
Just so we see we were wrong
So it seems that all the casual conversations
And all of the intimate situations
Were just figments of our imaginations
When, in all reality, all we were doing
Was just lying to pass the time
And dying to pass the hat from her hand to mine
Well, well
We're a heartbeat away from hell
I know, and it's easy enough to tell
You know we are a heartbeat away
From having no heartbeat at all (x2)
That we cannot see all the damage we've done
To not just ourselves
There is no way we'll make it
I know we're going under as well
And we'll keep our ears so close to the beat
That we cannot hear you
And we won't move our feet
To the sound of it all going down in flames
Let's put this fire out
Let's put this fire out
Well, well
We're a heartbeat away from hell
I know, and it's easy enough to tell
You know we are a heartbeat away
From having no heartbeat at all
So let's keep the taste locked up in our teeth
We won't let it seep out
No, we won't let it leak
You can't let it show
So maybe you just play your role
In making sure that nobody knows
Well, I bet we get caught up in every way
She said, "I read it on your face all the same."
Let's get so fixed on our problems and stay
Let's put this fire out
Let's put it out
Well, well
We're a heartbeat away from hell
I know, and it's easy enough to tell
You know we are a heartbeat away
From having no heartbeat at all (x2)
Just say you need it just as badly as me
All we ever wanted was to be happy
And just say you need it
Just so we see we were wrong
So it seems that all the casual conversations
And all of the intimate situations
Were just figments of our imaginations
When, in all reality, all we were doing
Was just lying to pass the time
And dying to pass the hat from her hand to mine
Well, well
We're a heartbeat away from hell
I know, and it's easy enough to tell
You know we are a heartbeat away
From having no heartbeat at all (x2)
Lyrics submitted by thoseguiltyeyes
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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.
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,
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.
To me it's about guy and girl that don't really care about anything but each other; they don't even care if they go to hell as long as they're with one another. It's a really sweet song and kick ass at the same time.