"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.
To me, the only thing left after a while was that night we watched documentaries up through morning and then you kicked me out.
You opened up your screen door and threw me off the porch.
It was summer then and I drove home whistling muddy waters down the pike.
And that was that: our one sweet night together.
Under highway signs I watched our love start fluttering and dissipating.
I counted all the headlights to make sure I was all right.
Now I'm wondering is it me or is it me that can't see silver linings?
So I fucked it up. I watched you go.
I saw my hand not dialing the phone.
All I'm left to do is remember the dull room we sat in blue stream light watching the strike of '59.
I dreamed of wrecking my underwear.
Oh can't I touch your cheeks somewhere under dirt filled rainy nights with my socks stuck in the mud?
Please come dive in puddles with me.
You opened up your screen door and threw me off the porch.
It was summer then and I drove home whistling muddy waters down the pike.
And that was that: our one sweet night together.
Under highway signs I watched our love start fluttering and dissipating.
I counted all the headlights to make sure I was all right.
Now I'm wondering is it me or is it me that can't see silver linings?
So I fucked it up. I watched you go.
I saw my hand not dialing the phone.
All I'm left to do is remember the dull room we sat in blue stream light watching the strike of '59.
I dreamed of wrecking my underwear.
Oh can't I touch your cheeks somewhere under dirt filled rainy nights with my socks stuck in the mud?
Please come dive in puddles with me.
Lyrics submitted by oofus
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Fast Car
Tracy Chapman
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Lord Huron
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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
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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.
Magical
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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.
American Town
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran shares a short story of reconnecting with an old flame on “American Town.” The track is about a holiday Ed Sheeran spends with his countrywoman who resides in America. The two are back together after a long period apart, and get around to enjoying a bunch of fun activities while rekindling the flames of their romance.
"It was summer then and I drove home whistling muddy waters down the pike. And that was that: our one sweet night together. " that line makes me want to jump up and sing ever time. very powerful. this is such a great song.