"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.
In a minute we'll be isotopes in the air, floating out the windows / But you know thermodynamics will save us all when we merge in the atmosphere, becoming one consciousness / So have no fear, there's no reason to panic - We'll hold each other as we rise to the heavens above from the woods / After all, it's true I love each and every single one of you / Release the doves, take a long drink from your cup
Cause the issue boys and girls is the solution
To the woods / we go – Bring your robe / I'll have the drinks, psychedelics, and the metronome - We can all sing loud as the world explodes / You said your god’s not wrong, so why did you ask him? Don't you trust that the other side is life everlasting? / Wasn't that your song waking up every single day? / Nevermind, I don't believe you anyway
Cause in a minute we'll be isotopes all jumbled up / Doesn't that give you some hope that we can end up together? / Don't mind the look in our eyes or the fear in the air, just come along / In the forest we'll be fine out there / And sing a song for each other as we all just disappear
And it might feel like a trial and an execution but the problem boys and girls is I don’t have a solution
We can’t get it out of our heads we can’t get it
Cause the issue boys and girls is the solution
To the woods / we go – Bring your robe / I'll have the drinks, psychedelics, and the metronome - We can all sing loud as the world explodes / You said your god’s not wrong, so why did you ask him? Don't you trust that the other side is life everlasting? / Wasn't that your song waking up every single day? / Nevermind, I don't believe you anyway
Cause in a minute we'll be isotopes all jumbled up / Doesn't that give you some hope that we can end up together? / Don't mind the look in our eyes or the fear in the air, just come along / In the forest we'll be fine out there / And sing a song for each other as we all just disappear
And it might feel like a trial and an execution but the problem boys and girls is I don’t have a solution
We can’t get it out of our heads we can’t get it
Lyrics submitted by MusicWillSetYouFree
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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"
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,
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.
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.