"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.
Once
This garden grew just light.
Just like an ivy, blinding eyes to the walls that hide behind, ascending high.
We looked away and everything was waves.
We worked our eyes and they snapped back into place,
but they never changed.
We looked away and everything was waves.
We worked our eyes and they snapped back into place,
but they never changed.
Once
This farm grew only faith.
Like an I.V. blindly placed
It demonstrates the safest way to stay awake.
We looked away and everything was waves.
We worked our eyes and they snapped back into place,
but they never changed.
We looked away and everything was waves.
We worked our eyes and they snapped back into place,
but they never change
And I want you
I want you to see
That I'll be there when you're trembling;
that I'll be there with you relapsing
into madness, into madness.
And I want you
I want you to see
That I'll be there when you're trembling;
and I'll hold you up when you're collapsing into sadness.
I can stand it.
We looked away and everything was waves.
We worked our eyes and they snapped back into place,
but they never changed.
We looked away and everything was waves.
We worked our eyes and they snapped back into place,
but they never changed.
This garden grew just light.
Just like an ivy, blinding eyes to the walls that hide behind, ascending high.
We looked away and everything was waves.
We worked our eyes and they snapped back into place,
but they never changed.
We looked away and everything was waves.
We worked our eyes and they snapped back into place,
but they never changed.
Once
This farm grew only faith.
Like an I.V. blindly placed
It demonstrates the safest way to stay awake.
We looked away and everything was waves.
We worked our eyes and they snapped back into place,
but they never changed.
We looked away and everything was waves.
We worked our eyes and they snapped back into place,
but they never change
And I want you
I want you to see
That I'll be there when you're trembling;
that I'll be there with you relapsing
into madness, into madness.
And I want you
I want you to see
That I'll be there when you're trembling;
and I'll hold you up when you're collapsing into sadness.
I can stand it.
We looked away and everything was waves.
We worked our eyes and they snapped back into place,
but they never changed.
We looked away and everything was waves.
We worked our eyes and they snapped back into place,
but they never changed.
Lyrics submitted by takeiteasy_
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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.
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.
i only know a few people that listen to this cd, which is kind of funny cause (in my opinion) it's their best. i remember hearing in an interview that this song is about the heisenberg principle, which is way over my head, but i think it's also about knowing what makes your loved ones sad and being there for them, even if you don't fully understand it (as i don't fully understand the heisenberg principle.)
From what I vaguely recall from Freshman yr. Physics is that the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle is the statement of realization that an observer can not measure more than one quantum variable at a time. I believe there are derivations that are used to 'predict' where certain quantum variables will be at a given time - but at an uncertainty.<br /> <br /> I like ...Is Dead a lot as well, it is definitely one of their best releases. Can't help but noticing them taking a page or two from Brand New's book. Aside from the extensive guitar effects, and the constructive noise present on this album - the scientific metaphors of this song (if it is in fact referring to the H.U.P.) rival the theme Mr. Lacey used in 'Degausser':<br /> <br /> "Goodbye my love<br /> You wait right here, and they will come and pick you up<br /> I've been on pause<br /> But I’m shaking off the rust<br /> I’ve lost my charge<br /> I've been degaussed"<br /> <br /> Gauss' Law is an electromagnetic phenomena.
(And I am not saying the similarities are a bad thing, if CIS is influenced by their other friends from Long Island that is all well and good)
i use to think the lyrics for the last verse were
"and i'll hold you up when you're collapsing, it's just sadness, i can stand it"
Which I quite liked, because i interpreted it as him having experienced so much sadness before that it's not really a big deal anymore.
This is my favorite song of the album for sure. I think it can be interpreted differently by people but i agree with masoupistoocold that it seems theres been so much sadness that it's expected now. I also think that it can be about a relationship in the lines
We looked away and everything was waves. We worked our eyes and they snapped back into place, but they never changed.
To me it's like even though this person has changed and gone through so much the feelings will always be there and that "i can stand it" to me shows that regardless how hard it is/gets that will never change.