Analysis: ‘Orange Show Speedway’ by Lizzy McAlpine | Storytelling in Songs #3

Quick preface, I realize that this seems to be a bit of a random song choice for June 2024 but it fits my life right now, alright? I know that Lizzy has released a new album rather recently and I know that there are tons of other great music that has just come out like TTPD or Billie’s new album or Sabrina’s singles and so on and so forth. But I have loved ‘five seconds flat’ since it came out like two years ago and ‘orange show speedway’, which is off that album, has always had a really special place in my heart. And now recently, I’ve found myself coming back to that song specifically a lot, so let’s dive into it.

Like I said, ‘orange show speedway’ is a song off of Lizzy McAlpine’s second studio album ‘five seconds flat’ which came out April 8th 2022. Specifically, it’s the last song off the album. The album overall has a proper story arc; it starts with leaving one relationship behind, the repercussions of that on the narrator’s emotional state, and the healing that followed, and ends with falling into a new love again. The most famous song off the album is ‘ceilings’ for sure. I think my personal favorites have always been this song, ‘all my ghosts’ and ‘hate to be lame’, which features FINNEAS and is the first song of Lizzy’s I remember hearing and the reason I got into her music. But also, this whole album is SO GOOD, I’m not kidding, every song is a masterpiece. Like, there is a reason ‘ceilings’ is so famous, the penmanship is crazy, the feeling encapsulated so unique. And then there is ‘erase me’ with dramatic swells and perfectly harmonized vocals, and ‘chemtrails’ which is devastatingly heartbreaking, and ‘reckless driving’ with the best ending, and. Just give the whole album a listen. But today we are talking about the final song, ‘orange show speedway’.

The Orange Show Speedway is an existing race track. According to Wikipedia and the official speedway website, it’s located in San Bernardino, California, and is a quarter mile long asphalt oval. It was opened in 1947 and is therefore the longest continually running racetrack on the west coast of the US. It’s hosted various stock car divisions, as well as some NASCAR races between 1963 and 1978, and then after 37 absent years it’s returned to the NASCAR calendar with some races in 2016 and onwards.

This isn’t the first car reference on the album btw, there is a song called ‘reckless driving’ for example which compares a relationship between two people with different ‘driving’ styles, saying that one of them is a lot more jump-in-with-both feet totally-in-love reckless while the other is less trusting and much more cautious. Essentially that sing compares two ways of falling in love to how they would drive a car, the car being the relationship, and the whole thing ends in a car crash because that’s how the relationship ended.

‘orange show speedway’ starts with a calm, upbeat guitar.

Every guy at this festival has you in their eyes
I never think about it too much, but I’m thinking tonight
And it’s really annoying that I’m triggered like this
‘Cause your name isn’t spoken, but I’m speaking it
And I don’t know why it happened, but it happened like this

Verse ONe

‘Every guy at this festival has you in their eyes‘ is such a unique and beautiful way of saying ‘I see you in everyone I look at’. No matter where I look, for a second I think it’s you, for a second I think you’re here at this festival. And maybe the eyes are a very specific thing that reminds the narrator of this other person, maybe it is the look in their eyes, maybe their eye color, or maybe it’s not the eyes specifically, maybe it’s the overall demeanor, the way they move, the way they talk, or maybe nothing specifically about them, maybe just them being a guy of about the same age is enough to remind the narrator of this other person. Maybe this person is just on the narrator’s mind constantly, and there need not be an obvious connection to the people at the festival, they’d think of this person anyway. This lyric also always reminds me of this quote that says ‘it’s not your type, it’s your pattern’. And guys of the same age do often be looking and behaving like clones ahahahha.

The next lyric is interesting, because it underlines this constant cycling back to this person in the narrator’s thoughts, but it points out that apparently this doesn’t usually happen (anymore). Something is triggering it right now in this moment that the start of the song describes. Maybe it’s the place they are at, this festival, maybe it’s the speedway, maybe it’s something else, we’ll get into that. But this whole first verse is describing a bit of a regression in the healing process, which is totally normal but, as Lizzy sings, so freaking annoying. Reminds me of a line I quote A LOT:

Healing doesn’t happen in a straight line.

Justified, kacey musgraves

One more thing I wanna point out about this verse is the line ’cause your name isn’t spoken but I’m speaking it’. Because- That line didn’t have to hit so hard. Oof, it actually physically hurts me when I think about it too much.That’s actually one of my favorite lyrics in this whole song.

When you’re in that phase where someone or something, a situation, is still too close, and you’re not over it, you can’t let it go, it’s right there at the forefront of your mind all the freaking time and no matter what you do, something always seems to remind you of it, that’s exactly what this line encapsulates. No one else is thinking about it but you. It’s in everything you do or see because it’s so strongly anchored in your mind at that moment in your life that you project it onto everything. And so it’s probable that, to the outsider’s eye, nothing in particular is calling back to that person or situation but in your mind it’s Right. There. No one else is speaking about it but you can’t help but bring it up. Because you are in fact thinking of it. And it’s annoying because it feels like there is nothing you can do about it, and if you don’t even speak about it it’s just trapped in your head even longer, but if you do speak about it you risk triggering even more memories. Either way you might make it worse. there is a Sabrina carpenter song that talks about this exact feeling as well:

You used a fork once
It turns out forks are fuckin’ everywhere
There’s no hidin’ from the thought of us
I got ways to find you anywhere […]

I consider you, I’m not trying to
It doesn’t matter whether not I want to
I can’t help it, it’s a habit
Your corner in my mind is well established

How many things, sabrina carpenter

Like, a fork is the most random thing that inherently probably has absolutely nothing to do with this person or this situation that you are trying to get over but it reminds you of them because everything reminds you of them. I love Sabrina’ is funny’s humor, bringing up a fork, but she’s also so right, it goes to ridiculous levels sometimes. So yeah, it might be that no one is talking about them but you can’t help but bring up their name and the story of why you just thought of them. If you’ve ever experienced this you’ll know exactly what I mean. And that’s why this line fucking hits. Such an annoying feeling but so so relatable.

My best friends are with me and I feel okay
But last time I was here, I was 18
My mind is racing and I feel so strange
Last time I was here, you were with me

pre-chorus

And this is where the cruising starts. I love how the production picks up, it’s SO SATISFYING. Don’t mind me dancing in the corner.

‘My mind is racing’ I see you, car-go-fast reference.

And this is also the first time it’s mentioned why the narrator is being triggered, why they are feeling strange. It’s the place. It’s because last time they were there, when they were eighteen, this other person was with them. Which I’ve already spoiled beforehand AHAHHA.

I fell in love at the Orange Show Speedway
It didn’t look like this three years ago
I had it all at the Orange Show Speedway
Or someplace like that, it all looks the same
Everything changes, what a shame

Chorus

The synths and drums at the end of that are sooo fun. Honestly, the whole album has such a poetic production.

I remember that this chorus confused me a bit at first, lyrically, because the ‘it all looks the same’ and ‘it didn’t look like this three years ago’ seem so contradictory. First thought at that is obviously that the orange show speedway is a metaphor. It doesn’t necessarily have to be a real place that the narrator fell in love at, it could be more of a representation of the feeling of falling in love. And hence, that feeling looks different now than it did then because the narrator is older and has experienced love and loss since, but somehow it’s also still the same because in a way it’s still you and its still that same feeling of falling for someone new. And that’s what gets you reminiscing on how change is the only thing in life that is constant. Does that make sense? That’s how I’ve always interpreted this chorus anyway.

The line about how ‘it all looks the same’ can be seen a bit differently as well. When you went through something traumatic, or something difficult, sometimes memories come back to haunt you when you least expect it. Places or experiences that are similar can conjure up things you didn’t want to think about and remember. And sometimes, objectively, those places or experiences don’t have to actually be that similar but with the context of what you went through it all looks the same to you.

On another note, Lizzy says ‘what a shame’ a lot in this album ahahah. It’s in ‘firearm’, ‘nobody likes a secret’, ‘chemtrails’, and then there is literally a song that is called ‘what a shame’. Just a fun little detail.

Also, love the little guitar part between the chorus and the second verse, really giving the instruments some time to shine.

I’m in the middle of the crowd, and it’s like no times passed
I’m half expecting you to be there when I turn to my left
We were stupid and young, and I was so in love
We were just friends riding on the line between acceptable
And angering your girlfriend

Like I said earlier, I think the orange show speedway and driving or racing is mostly a metaphor for falling in love and being in a relationship. But I also still always picture the narrator as effectively being at the speedway because it can be both, it can be a metaphor and the location of where this story takes place, it can be literal and not.

The line ‘I’m half expecting you to be there when I turn to my left’ always reminds me of ‘you’re walking past and on habit, I lean in’ from ‘In My Head’ by Maisie Peters. That line hurts. Both talk about the feeling of not being completely over it something yet because the habit, the reflex, is still there, and it can take a long long time to get over that, much longer than the actual heartbreak. Although, every time that happens it’s like phantom pains all over again. For me, at least. So bittersweet, especially if some healing has already been done. And with this song, to me it feels like there is an acceptance in the reminiscing. It’s like, yes I think of you still but I can laugh about it now and it doesn’t completely throw me into a downward spiral, I can be reminded of you and it won’t ruin my day. It might rattle me for a moment, make me stop and remember, maybe smile to myself and be a bit sad that that season of my life is over, but then I can let it go and be happy that everything is different now and move on and be in this moment again.

The whole ‘we were just friends’ part in this verse is exactly the situation that her other song ‘what a shame’ talks about.

The end of the second verse has a different melody than the end of the first, and the flow on this one is soo fun!

You know what I just realized as well? This song reflects on the beginning of the relationship but it’s the album closer, and the album opener, ‘doomsday’, talks about the end of the relationship. That’s pretty dope.

My best friends are with me and I feel okay
But last time I was here, I was 18
My mind is racing and I feel so strange
Last time I was here, you were with me

pre-chorus

And this time around when we get to the pre-chorus, we have a lot more context. We now know that the ‘last time I was here’ was at the start of a relationship, falling into love, and ‘you were with me’ because the narrator fell in love with “you”, and it’s strange because this time around “you” are not here, this time the narrator is falling for someone else.

Racing is such a perfect metaphor for life and love, and Lizzy really emphasizes that with this record. This song, ‘reckless driving’, it’s all interconnected and the metaphors are perfectly executed and on point and I am obsessed.

Additionally, it’s no secret that I personally love racing, though I don’t really watch NASCAR, I’m personally more a fan of non-oval tracks. But either way, that’s why I love using this theme as a comparison to falling in love even more. The festival-like feeling of being at a race, the rush of speed, the smell and the vibrations and the sounds, and also the color orange, it’s all got this really reminiscing feel to it, this young and free and slightly tipsy feel of being at a fun event with friends and the sun is going down and you wish you could just stop time and stay in that moment forever. And you remember all the other times where you’ve also felt that way, and maybe it was with people that are not in your life anymore, and maybe you’ve gone through moments where you didn’t think you could end up feeling like this again, and so there is this all-encompassing bittersweet happiness, and that’s what this song encapsules for me personally. Healing. The sun rising and setting again, realizing that you are perfectly okay again, that after going through something hard (like for example a breakup, or just general heartbreak not necessarily in a romantic sense) there will be one day where you go out and realize that yes, this reminds you of them but you are still here and you are having fun and you are with your favorite people and it is in fact possible to feel happy again and it’s strange but also really amazing. And maybe not only to feel happy again, maybe also to meet someone new and fall in love again. This song sounds like summer and it feels like summer.

I fell in love at the Orange Show Speedway
It didn’t look like this three years ago
I had it all at the Orange Show Speedway
Or someplace like that, it all looks the same
Everything changes, what a shame

chorus

This song is such a bop. Yes, it’s a bit sad and bittersweet but. It’s still SUCH a bop and that is exactly the feeling that the lyrics also convey. That’s life.

Uh, yes, oh, fireworks
This is the best voice memo diary to date, I think (this is amazing)
Um, just wanted to update myself
No one else listens to these but myself
Hey, okay, you got the fireworks if you put that in a song (yeah yeah yeah)

bridge

Voice memo moment, woop woop! Love that. Voice memos in songs are great. And with this one, her friend is in it which is so special and she also sings in the song ‘my best friends are with my and I feel okay’, and it’s just so cute that that made it into the song, I love that so much.

Lizzy is known for documenting her life and song ideas in ‘voice memo diaries’ as she calls them. I think some of them are on her Instagram.

Putting this voice memo into the song was a great choice, it really underlines the outdoor event, summery feel of it. And fireworks! So fun.

And as a listener, this is where you think the song might end. It’s slowed down, the voice memo could work as an outro. And it’s so symbolic that the song doesn’t end yet. You got the fireworks recorded and they are over now but you remember them and you’ve got something to remember them by, and you think the song has ended. But then it keeps going, so softly.

I fell in love at the Orange Show Speedway
But I’ve never been here in my life
I think it all kinda feels like an Orange Show Speedway
When you’re racing head first towards something that’ll kill you in five seconds flat
When I’m racing head first towards everything that I want back

outro

It’s so soft. And ending on the calm guitar as well. Chef’s kiss.

If the chorus earlier didn’t throw you off on first listen, I’m sure ‘I’ve never been here in my life’ did haha, it’s so intriguing. It hooks you back in, I had so many questions, especially because the first time listening taking it literally is the regular way to understand the song and then this outro comes and suddenly you realize there might be more to it.

I think there are quite a few ways to interpret this outro and this song and this album as a whole. It took me a while to figure out what I understand it to mean to me. And part of it I already went into earlier, with the orange show speedway being a metaphor, but this outro is where the metaphor really steps up. There are three ways to interpret this line about never having been at the orange show speedway before that I can think of.

First, maybe the narrator has effectively never been at the orange show speedway and is now there for the first time. But the feeling of being at that speedway is the same feeling that they got from this relationship that they are reminiscing on. The speedway reminds them of that situation three years ago, which would add up with songs like ‘reckless driving’ like I’ve been saying, because Lizzy has used car metaphors to describe a relationship quite a bit so maybe being at this speedway for the first time really triggered those memories. Or, number two, it’s a metaphor for falling in love but the narrator has never really fallen in love before because the last time they thought they’d fallen in love, the situation they keep remembering throughout this song from three years ago, was all made up in their head, play pretend scenarios with a crush maybe, but this time it’s real and they’ve never felt this way in reality before.

Or three, and this one is my favorite, this is how I like to think of it, and this is also the approach I’ve taken this whole time: the narrator has fallen in love before so they have been in a similar situation before BUT, and this is where the metaphor really comes to life, ‘I’ve never been here in my life’ because it’s new again. It’s a new me, new other person person, new relationship, new place, new everything, and it reminds the narrator of something they felt before but it was different then and that’s just a memory now, and this new situation they’re in, they have never been there before. They’ve never experienced this exact moment before and it might be reminiscent of another moment but it’s not the same one. And it can turn out differently this time around.

And then, of course, the album title in the last two lines of the last song on the album. And I LOVE the last two or three lines SO MUCH. I thought I’d put in something that Lizzy said about that:

There’s a lyric in the last song on the record, “orange show speedway” that goes, “When you’re racing headfirst towards something that’ll kill you in five seconds flat / When I’m racing headfirst towards something that I want back.” That lyric really sums up the entire theme of the album and the short film. It just means that even though falling in love is terrifying and I’ve gotten my heart broken in the past, I still want it back because it’s beautiful.

Lizzy Mcalpine

There is something so relatable about that haha. The intensity of love, the

You always want and seek and run towards love even if it can kill you so quickly (through breakups and issues) and how you always race back to it and want it back, the intensity, the rose-colored glasses,

Racing towards death with no stopping it is so perfect as well because if you loop this album, you obviously go back to the opening track. And like I have mentioned, the opening track is ‘doomsday’ which talks about the narrator’s ‘death’ when the relationship ended. This song is a perfect closer because it touches on so many other songs on the album, it’s so interconnected, but it also illustrates this circle of falling in and out of love again and again. And I just thought of a fourth meaning, because if you think about it as a circle, it could also be about the same person, racing back into it with that person, wanting that specific person back, and it’s doomed to fail, so you’ll be back at doomsday before too long. Which would also link back into ‘called you again’, another song on the album that talks about the cycle of keeping in contact with someone that is supposed to be out of your life by now. I guess that is the more negative way to interpret this song, wanting to go back to an ex, or going back into a toxic situation maybe. Which is also interesting considering that the real-life Orange Show Speedway is an oval track. Meaning love can be linear with a happy ending, or it can be a cyclical irrational obsession that only leads to heartbreak. And you always go again, go another round, in the hopes that if you give love another try, you might finally find the track that won’t lead back to doom. Lol.

This album is freaking good, alright.

Okay let’s end on a less depressing note ahahah, here’s another thing Lizzy said about this song which is a lot more hopeful and represents the spirit and the message of this song a lot better in my opinion:

So it’s actually a lyric in the last song of the album called “orange show speedway,” and it’s the only time that the album title really shows up – is that lyric. It’s the second to last lyric in the song. And basically, it’s just about how, even though relationships and feelings and humans are complicated and weird and messy and no one ever really knows what they’re doing, and even though I’ve gotten hurt so many times before in the past from relationships and all that stuff, I still search for love and seek it out because it also can be beautiful on rare occasions.

Lizzy Mcalpine

Yes, love can kill you in five seconds flat. Heartbreak can feel a bit like a small death. But you still race towards love, you don’t give up on it, you want it back, because even though it could kill you, it also makes you feel alive. And that’s life, really. That’s being a human on this planet. That’s being soft and open and vulnerable even though this world can really hurt you, but it’s so much better than turning cold and bitter, it’s harder, but the experiences are so worth it, and you have to keep trusting in that. Beautiful note to end an album on. I love this song.