"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.
Yes, here we go again, give you more, nothing lesser
Back on the mic is the anti-depressor
Ad-Rock, the pressure, yes, we need this
The best is yet to come, and yes, believe this
Leggo my Eggo while I flex my ego
Sip off my 'secco, dressed up tuxedo
Sipping coffee, playing Keno in the casino
Want a lucky number, ask Mike Dino
I burn the competition like a flamethrower
My rhymes age like wine as I get older
I'm getting bolder, competition is waning
I got the feeling and assume the lane and
We got a party on the left, a party on the right
We gonna party for the motherfucking right to fight
Make some noise if you're with me
Make some noise if you're with me
Armed insurrection, popular election
Get paid every year like tax collection
Hear my perfection, rotary connection
Taking MC's down by lethal rap injection
I'm like an ornithologist when I get pissed
You must have drank a fizzy-lifting drink and you got lifted
And sifted, I'm just whiffed
And when I catch MCs it's time for wing-clipping
I fly like a hawk, or better yet an eagle
A seagull, I sniff suckers out like a beagle
My ego is off and running and gone
'Cause I'm about the best and if you diss than that's wrong
We got a party on the left, a party on the right
We gonna party for the motherfucking right to fight
Make some noise if you're with me
Make some noise if you're with me
Pass me the scalpel, I'll make an incision
I'll cut off the part of your brain that does the bitching
Put it in formaldehyde and put it in the shelf
And you can show it to your friends and say "that's my old self"
Can't do me nothing, can't tell me nada
Don't quote me now because I'm doing the lambada
The forbidden dance, here's my chance
To make romance in my B-boy stance
Parlay romancing into financing
Opened up a restaurant with Ted Danson
The roaches checked in, but they never checked out
I set the record straight no doubt
We got a party on the left, a party on the right
We gonna party for the motherfucking right to fight
Make some noise if you're with me
Make some noise if you're with me
Make some noise if you're with me
Make some noise if you're with me
Back on the mic is the anti-depressor
Ad-Rock, the pressure, yes, we need this
The best is yet to come, and yes, believe this
Leggo my Eggo while I flex my ego
Sip off my 'secco, dressed up tuxedo
Sipping coffee, playing Keno in the casino
Want a lucky number, ask Mike Dino
I burn the competition like a flamethrower
My rhymes age like wine as I get older
I'm getting bolder, competition is waning
I got the feeling and assume the lane and
We got a party on the left, a party on the right
We gonna party for the motherfucking right to fight
Make some noise if you're with me
Make some noise if you're with me
Armed insurrection, popular election
Get paid every year like tax collection
Hear my perfection, rotary connection
Taking MC's down by lethal rap injection
I'm like an ornithologist when I get pissed
You must have drank a fizzy-lifting drink and you got lifted
And sifted, I'm just whiffed
And when I catch MCs it's time for wing-clipping
I fly like a hawk, or better yet an eagle
A seagull, I sniff suckers out like a beagle
My ego is off and running and gone
'Cause I'm about the best and if you diss than that's wrong
We got a party on the left, a party on the right
We gonna party for the motherfucking right to fight
Make some noise if you're with me
Make some noise if you're with me
Pass me the scalpel, I'll make an incision
I'll cut off the part of your brain that does the bitching
Put it in formaldehyde and put it in the shelf
And you can show it to your friends and say "that's my old self"
Can't do me nothing, can't tell me nada
Don't quote me now because I'm doing the lambada
The forbidden dance, here's my chance
To make romance in my B-boy stance
Parlay romancing into financing
Opened up a restaurant with Ted Danson
The roaches checked in, but they never checked out
I set the record straight no doubt
We got a party on the left, a party on the right
We gonna party for the motherfucking right to fight
Make some noise if you're with me
Make some noise if you're with me
Make some noise if you're with me
Make some noise if you're with me
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More Featured Meanings
Fast Car
Tracy Chapman
Tracy Chapman
Cajun Girl
Little Feat
Little Feat
Overall about difficult moments of disappointment and vulnerability. Having hope and longing, while remaining optimistic for the future. Encourages the belief that with each new morning there is a chance for things to improve.
The chorus offers a glimmer of optimism and a chance at a resolution and redemption in the future.
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"
The bridge shows signs of longing and a plea for companionship. The Lyrics express a desire for authentic connection and the importance of Loving someone just as they are. "Just in passing, I'm not asking. That you be anyone but you”
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,
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.
Favorite song off the new album. May be their best album in my opinion - close call with check your head though.
Very strong opening to this album. Lots of great lyrics, dope beat.
Great video too