"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.
Kiss and kill your boyfriend
And all rich ones, too
Rich kids of the world unite
Dime on the bleachers
Head says not that far away
Bu the only way up is down
And i keep falling
Flip it again, but the answer
Hasn't spared its change
Doesn't matter how much time
You'll never forget that forgetting's required
Served on a platter of fakes
It's inevitable
We're proud to be pricks
We're proud to be assholes
Picking up the pieces one by one
Don't let it ride
Answer, someone, anyone
Won't you pick up the pieces
You left behind?
And all rich ones, too
Rich kids of the world unite
Dime on the bleachers
Head says not that far away
Bu the only way up is down
And i keep falling
Flip it again, but the answer
Hasn't spared its change
Doesn't matter how much time
You'll never forget that forgetting's required
Served on a platter of fakes
It's inevitable
We're proud to be pricks
We're proud to be assholes
Picking up the pieces one by one
Don't let it ride
Answer, someone, anyone
Won't you pick up the pieces
You left behind?
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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.
Mountain Song
Jane's Addiction
Jane's Addiction
Jane's Addiction vocalist Perry Farrell gives Adam Reader some heartfelt insight into Jane’s Addiction's hard rock manifesto "Mountain Song", which was the second single from their revolutionary album Nothing's Shocking. Mountain song was first recorded in 1986 and appeared on the soundtrack to the film Dudes starring Jon Cryer. The version on Nothing's Shocking was re-recorded in 1988.
"'Mountain Song' was actually about... I hate to say it but... drugs. Climbing this mountain and getting as high as you can, and then coming down that mountain," reveals Farrell. "What it feels to descend from the mountain top... not easy at all. The ascension is tough but exhilarating. Getting down is... it's a real bummer. Drugs is not for everybody obviously. For me, I wanted to experience the heights, and the lows come along with it."
"There's a part - 'Cash in now honey, cash in Miss Smith.' Miss Smith is my Mother; our last name was Smith. Cashing in when she cashed in her life. So... she decided that, to her... at that time, she was desperate. Life wasn't worth it for her, that was her opinion. Some people think, never take your life, and some people find that their life isn't worth living. She was in love with my Dad, and my Dad was not faithful to her, and it broke her heart. She was very desperate and she did something that I know she regrets."
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.
Stagnant, still and ever changing. Placid and utterly depressing. This is my number on anti-jock song! I love this friggin song! I can't believe how awesome ATDI writes!
for me, the best song on "tenement" (besides embroglio). can't figure out what the lyrics mean but Porfirio Diaz was the name of some mexican politician (?) in the late 19th century. at least I think that...
@Exocet Porfirio Diaz is a street in our hometown where the old practice spaces were. He was also one of Mexico's most famous Presidents.
Embroglio is powerful and this song is f**king amazing, so much atmosphere on this track and such a great tempo when it kicks in. I am addicted to atd-i, they influence alot of my poetry.
PICKING UP THE PIECES ONE BY ONE!
Maybe it's about struggling and changing through high school.
porfirio diaz, was the president of Mexico (1877-80, 1884-1911), who established a strong centralized state that he held under firm control for more than three decades. if you read more about him you will probably understand the text better.
this song contains double meanings. "platter of fakes" describes the personatlity of high school kids. Also refrences to the promises given to the mexican citizens by the dictator.
could just be me
I hate this song. I find it to be utterly awful.
The lyrics on the other hand I enjoy. I go to a college prep school, a little rich kid haven, where literally almost all of the kids first cars are better than a car my parents will EVER buy for themselves.
So yes I can relate to this. Very much so.
Cedric said before playing this live:
"This is a street name in our hometown, and directly across that street, you can see the shanty town of Mexico, 'cause we are a border town where we come from, And it's funny when bands come into town and they think theyre going to play them shanty towns and play their sounds to the native indians people, and it's funny how theyre not un-inteligible in the first place. This is dedicated to friends in our hometown, and all the un-inteligable that hang over the shanty towns and all the people we see over there"
3-9-99 FL.
the music, as in the actual music in this song, make me feel like a better person listening to it