Well, in my opinion this song is about being a young & maybe a little naive &/or introverted girl and finding yourself loving a man who is at first very charming, carefree & outgoing, and seems at first to be without limits, as in
"There was a time
you opened up every doorway
you didn't mind if everything
wasn't your way"
then that man starts to gradually become more introverted & shows their more possessive/obsessive side to you as the relationship progresses, even while they keep up the appearance of being carefree & outgoing to everyone else,
"Don't pull away
that goes against what you told me
I look in your eyes
I realize what you've sold me
is love in a vacuum"
so you confront them about the way they're acting and of course they deny it,
"I think you've changed
but you insist that
that's not true"
quite possibly they are an addict of some sort, my guess would be cocaine, &/or showing very obsessive behavior towards you (early on in the video for this song we see the man hanging a picture up, it is a very large portrait of Aimee & it is prominently displayed in his/their apartment for the duration of the song), thus their "love in a vacuum",
"You look so strange, so distant
that you're hardly you
Now I can see
how you have been acting different
You say it's me
but I know
that it isn't
it's love in a vacuum"
but still you are in love with them and don't want to leave them and you know that they are truly in love with you and they don't want you to leave them either, maybe they are convinced you can save them from themself, maybe they are so broken that the possibility of an overdose &/or suicide attempt is very real and you want to get through to them that their behavior not only dangerous but it is also just pissing you off and if they don't wise up they run the risk of loosing you, as in the lines
"You will be lonely
if you leave me alone", so you want to save them but can't get through to them due to the addiction &/or emotional problems they have,
"Love in a vacuum
and that's not enough
love in a vacuum
You will be lonely
you'll be the only one who feels this way
You will be lonely
if you leave me alone
You will be lonely
you'll be the only one who feels this way
it's just not enough"
you want them to understand that the love they are giving you is not enough when it is filtered through the vacuum of their drug addiction &/or emotional impairment,
"You will be lonely
you'll be the only one who feels this way
it's just not enough
and just wait
you will be lonely
Love in a vacuum
Love in a vacuum
and that's not enough
Love in a vacuum".
'Love In A Vacuum' for me is a hauntingly truthful acute argument on the loneliness of obsession and almost inevitable loss of love that follows people who are broken in some way or another; the obsessives, the coke heads, the drunks, addicts or the just-plain-old emotionally broken; a razor sharp, lyrically driven, deceptively poppy, yet ultimately-depressing-in-the-best-way song.
Quintessential Aimee Mann.
What's all the noise about?
Have some respect shut the fuck up
Driveby money talkin shit yo back the truck up
Y'all niggaz don't respect me but you fear me
And fear is better than respect, y'all niggaz hear me?
If I smack the shit outta this nigga
His man over here be like, "Yo what? Nigga what?"
But his man is like, "Psych yo"
Take it from one extreme to the next
And my shit always bounce like D-M, to the X
I can bring it from up here, to enough is enough
Down to, "Aight I think it's safe to take off the cuffs"
I play wit words, blurs and slurs, flip styles
Take his and hers, niggaz is couraged, I get wild
So don't make me angry, you wouldn't like me when I'm angry
I've got a lot of enemies, and they'd all like to bang me
(What?) Catch me when I'm sleepin', with one eye closed
One guy chose the dogs; left one got froze, filled with holes
Ugh, it's gonna be a long time befo' dey touch this here
It's Gotti's, Consigliere, let's take it there and make a milli, yeah
Which Bentley's? Ice drippin' off the jewels, daily
Ja the one, what? Y'all don't hear me, nigga
Y'all remember, see-M-see, '95 December
Fine women, illegal tender, such is life
When I feel like I ain't to be held, who could hold me?
Hoes try to console me, rec' exec's want to own me
Damned if I die slowly, drugged out broke and lonely
Like so many who pushed roadie before me
Ja, hit em precisely, God just don't make too many like me
Inadvertently shittin' on the Top 20
Y'all niggaz kill me, talkin' like y'all can't be touched
See by the time y'all realized, I be done touched you up
Blazed you up, your whole style, chump nigga, what?
Think again if you thought I gave a fuck!
Yo
Yo independently, reppin thoroughly throughout the N-why
We thump and get high, infrared nigga, dead eye
Aimin' at the sky's limit, jumpin' in, we all in it
The good life, tryin" ta live it
Yo
Yo independently, reppin thoroughly throughout the N-why
We thump and get high, infrared nigga, dead eye
Aimin' at the sky's limit, jumpin' in, we all in it
The good life, tryin" ta live it
Yo whaddup to all my thug-lawn, niggaz in plush cars
Rikers Island killers with rug scars, police fuck y'all (Yeah)
Live niggaz, I love y'all for representin'
Ya have respect of prison, came home, caught a Expedition
Look in my eye, you see realness
The Mobb tonic quest for million, my Lex with ill rims
My name ringin', chain swingin', ain't richest?
Are you my heir? Like do we present the same vision?
My insight is deep, mental intuition
Type essential, due to this trife life we livin'
My cypher, e-lite snipers in the mountains
The Bridge under pressure for mad years and countin'
What? My connect eatin' papaya, supplyin' me
Cormega represent a live nigga dynasty
9's and Tek's, my hollow heads outlined your vest
My only fear is twenty five years of death
One deep from Jersey, on the Island doin' six
Now ain't that a bitch, they sayin', "Hussein never shit"
I shot more niggaz than thorough niggaz in your crew
You and your mother know don't go against, be on you
Mad career criminal, crimin' be like a hobby
Probably drinkin my notty or ill just shootin' my shotty
Nigga you get extorted, flippin' styles, poppin' chicks
Bullets small as his G-be-30, niggaz lose it quick
I had to get out of town, I done shot another dick
Niggaz'll roll tricks to keep they mind off shit
I tack up parole, they supervise my whole side
Money wise, surprised, thug niggaz on the rise
These card cats is federal, you soft and shreddable
Picturin' every rappers comin' at me all edible
I lift past your crew, you know what I'm about
Guinness-style, Outlawz, just hit up another out
Hmmm, yeah, yeah, now
Runnin' wit five niggaz, criminal disguised niggaz
The live niggaz, pull a Mac what? Surprise niggaz
Holdin' my mics stiletto like; invitin' these water-head brothers
To get splashed back and take it light
Slidin' back when I was sixteen, Romelo my brother
Told me laid back, aced up, to play it mellow
Seein how I'm a young Othello
Don't confuse me wit them brothers who lost playin' black DeNiro
The boss of this, gettin' tossed to Crist'
The barber shit, we ballin' flawlessly
For-ever y'all brothers tried but never to touch me
The God, heated up beyond the frequency
Now it's time to put you niggaz under pressure, we form
Here I am, if it's on then it's on
If the world was yours, could you keep it from a nigga like me?
Hold your head, we about to see, motherfucker
Yeah, Usual Suspects, never suspect niggaz yeah
What y'all thought I was gone?
Never that, it's been deaded
Y'all see
Have some respect shut the fuck up
Driveby money talkin shit yo back the truck up
Y'all niggaz don't respect me but you fear me
And fear is better than respect, y'all niggaz hear me?
If I smack the shit outta this nigga
His man over here be like, "Yo what? Nigga what?"
But his man is like, "Psych yo"
Take it from one extreme to the next
And my shit always bounce like D-M, to the X
I can bring it from up here, to enough is enough
Down to, "Aight I think it's safe to take off the cuffs"
I play wit words, blurs and slurs, flip styles
Take his and hers, niggaz is couraged, I get wild
So don't make me angry, you wouldn't like me when I'm angry
I've got a lot of enemies, and they'd all like to bang me
(What?) Catch me when I'm sleepin', with one eye closed
One guy chose the dogs; left one got froze, filled with holes
Ugh, it's gonna be a long time befo' dey touch this here
It's Gotti's, Consigliere, let's take it there and make a milli, yeah
Which Bentley's? Ice drippin' off the jewels, daily
Ja the one, what? Y'all don't hear me, nigga
Y'all remember, see-M-see, '95 December
Fine women, illegal tender, such is life
When I feel like I ain't to be held, who could hold me?
Hoes try to console me, rec' exec's want to own me
Damned if I die slowly, drugged out broke and lonely
Like so many who pushed roadie before me
Ja, hit em precisely, God just don't make too many like me
Inadvertently shittin' on the Top 20
Y'all niggaz kill me, talkin' like y'all can't be touched
See by the time y'all realized, I be done touched you up
Blazed you up, your whole style, chump nigga, what?
Think again if you thought I gave a fuck!
Yo
Yo independently, reppin thoroughly throughout the N-why
We thump and get high, infrared nigga, dead eye
Aimin' at the sky's limit, jumpin' in, we all in it
The good life, tryin" ta live it
Yo
Yo independently, reppin thoroughly throughout the N-why
We thump and get high, infrared nigga, dead eye
Aimin' at the sky's limit, jumpin' in, we all in it
The good life, tryin" ta live it
Yo whaddup to all my thug-lawn, niggaz in plush cars
Rikers Island killers with rug scars, police fuck y'all (Yeah)
Live niggaz, I love y'all for representin'
Ya have respect of prison, came home, caught a Expedition
Look in my eye, you see realness
The Mobb tonic quest for million, my Lex with ill rims
My name ringin', chain swingin', ain't richest?
Are you my heir? Like do we present the same vision?
My insight is deep, mental intuition
Type essential, due to this trife life we livin'
My cypher, e-lite snipers in the mountains
The Bridge under pressure for mad years and countin'
What? My connect eatin' papaya, supplyin' me
Cormega represent a live nigga dynasty
9's and Tek's, my hollow heads outlined your vest
My only fear is twenty five years of death
One deep from Jersey, on the Island doin' six
Now ain't that a bitch, they sayin', "Hussein never shit"
I shot more niggaz than thorough niggaz in your crew
You and your mother know don't go against, be on you
Mad career criminal, crimin' be like a hobby
Probably drinkin my notty or ill just shootin' my shotty
Nigga you get extorted, flippin' styles, poppin' chicks
Bullets small as his G-be-30, niggaz lose it quick
I had to get out of town, I done shot another dick
Niggaz'll roll tricks to keep they mind off shit
I tack up parole, they supervise my whole side
Money wise, surprised, thug niggaz on the rise
These card cats is federal, you soft and shreddable
Picturin' every rappers comin' at me all edible
I lift past your crew, you know what I'm about
Guinness-style, Outlawz, just hit up another out
Hmmm, yeah, yeah, now
Runnin' wit five niggaz, criminal disguised niggaz
The live niggaz, pull a Mac what? Surprise niggaz
Holdin' my mics stiletto like; invitin' these water-head brothers
To get splashed back and take it light
Slidin' back when I was sixteen, Romelo my brother
Told me laid back, aced up, to play it mellow
Seein how I'm a young Othello
Don't confuse me wit them brothers who lost playin' black DeNiro
The boss of this, gettin' tossed to Crist'
The barber shit, we ballin' flawlessly
For-ever y'all brothers tried but never to touch me
The God, heated up beyond the frequency
Now it's time to put you niggaz under pressure, we form
Here I am, if it's on then it's on
If the world was yours, could you keep it from a nigga like me?
Hold your head, we about to see, motherfucker
Yeah, Usual Suspects, never suspect niggaz yeah
What y'all thought I was gone?
Never that, it's been deaded
Y'all see
Lyrics submitted by SongMeanings
Usual Suspects Lyrics as written by Michael Mcdermon Jeffrey Atkins
Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group, Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC, Kobalt Music Publishing Ltd., Reservoir Media Management, Inc.
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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