Many people seem to think that Sonic R's songs either make no sense at all or are vague motivational songs that have no connection to the actual race tracks. that's not actually true. Firstly, Super Sonic Racing is an obvious exception to all this. Secondly, while other songs' lyrics do have either a vague connection to the race track or none at all, their names are actually very fitting:
>Resort Island = sunshine>Radical City = city (duh)>Regal Ruin = time>Reactive Factory = work>Radiant Emerald = diamondIt's most likely that the lyricist was either given these keywords or the actual song titles by SoJ and told to come up with random shit just for the vocals. Or maybe the songs weren't supposed to have vocals at all. Anyhow, the third reason why the songs may actually have more meaning than people say they have is because they seem to have a very noticeable thematic cohesion. Yes, they have nothing to do with Sonic or racing whatsoever (except for Super Sonic Racing). But they do have themes. Some tracks, focus on love (Back in Time, Diamond in the Sky), some focus on motivation and working hard (Can You Feel the Sunshine, Living in the City, Work It Out) and some are weirdly melancholic (again, Living in the City and Back in Time).
I want to bring your attention to the later two categories. To illustrate them I want to bring up the lyrics from the chorus of Living in the City. The first two lines are as follows:
>Living in the city>You know you have to surviveThese lines are weirdly depressing, pointing out the harsh reality of capitalism. But then these two lines are immediately followed by this:
>You've got to keep the dream alive>Where everything is freeThat refers to the American Dream, the idea that after you work hard enough you earn just enough money to afford anything you want. Which does make me wonder whether the song is a reflection of proletarian struggles or just neoliberal propaganda. Or maybe both?
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