So this has been.my favorite song of OTEP's since it came out in 2004, and I always thought it was a song about a child's narrative of suffering in an abusive Christian home. But now that I am revisiting the lyrics, I am seeing something totally new.
This song could be gospel of John but from the perspective of Jesus.
Jesus was NOT having a good time up to and during the crucifixion. Everyone in the known world at the time looked to him with fear, admiration or disgust and he was constantly being asked questions. He spoke in "verses, prophesies and curses". He had made an enemy of the state, and believed the world was increasingly wicked and fallen from grace, or that he was in the "mouth of madness".
The spine of atlas is the structure that allows the titan to hold the world up. Jesus challenged the state and in doing so became a celebrated resistance figure. It also made him public enemy #1.
All of this happened simply because he was doing his thing, not because of any agenda he had or strategy.
And then he gets scourged (storm of thorns)
There are some plot holes here but I think it's an interesting interpretation.
I've been the needle and the thread
Weaving figure eights and circles around your head
I try to laugh but cry instead
Patiently wait to hear the words you've never said
Fumbling through your dresser drawer
Forgot what I was looking for
Try to guide me in the right direction
Making use of all this time
Keeping everything inside
Close my eyes and listen to you cry
I'm lifting you up
I'm letting you down
I'm dancing till dawn
I'm fooling around
I'm not giving up
I'm making your love
This city's made us crazy and we must get out
"This is not goodbye," she said
"It's just time for me to rest my head"
She does not walk, she runs instead
Down these jagged streets and into my bed
When I was fumbling through your dresser drawer
Forgot what I was looking for
Try to guide me in the right direction
Making use of all this time
Keeping everything inside
Close my eyes and listen to you cry
I'm lifting you up
I'm letting you down
I'm dancing till dawn
I'm fooling around
I'm not giving up
I'm making your love
This city's made us crazy and we must get out
There's only so much I can do for you
After all of the things you've put me through
I'm lifting you up
I'm letting you down
I'm dancing till dawn
I'm fooling around
I'm not giving up
I'm making your love
This city's made us crazy and we must get out
I'm lifting you up
I'm letting you down
I'm dancing till dawn
I'm fooling around
I'm not giving up
I'm making your love
This city's made us crazy and we must get out
I'm lifting you up (oh oh)
I'm letting you down (oh oh)
I'm dancing till dawn (oh oh)
I'm fooling around (oh oh)
I'm not giving up (oh oh)
I'm making your love (oh oh)
This city's made us crazy and we must get out (oh oh)
Weaving figure eights and circles around your head
I try to laugh but cry instead
Patiently wait to hear the words you've never said
Fumbling through your dresser drawer
Forgot what I was looking for
Try to guide me in the right direction
Making use of all this time
Keeping everything inside
Close my eyes and listen to you cry
I'm lifting you up
I'm letting you down
I'm dancing till dawn
I'm fooling around
I'm not giving up
I'm making your love
This city's made us crazy and we must get out
"This is not goodbye," she said
"It's just time for me to rest my head"
She does not walk, she runs instead
Down these jagged streets and into my bed
When I was fumbling through your dresser drawer
Forgot what I was looking for
Try to guide me in the right direction
Making use of all this time
Keeping everything inside
Close my eyes and listen to you cry
I'm lifting you up
I'm letting you down
I'm dancing till dawn
I'm fooling around
I'm not giving up
I'm making your love
This city's made us crazy and we must get out
There's only so much I can do for you
After all of the things you've put me through
I'm lifting you up
I'm letting you down
I'm dancing till dawn
I'm fooling around
I'm not giving up
I'm making your love
This city's made us crazy and we must get out
I'm lifting you up
I'm letting you down
I'm dancing till dawn
I'm fooling around
I'm not giving up
I'm making your love
This city's made us crazy and we must get out
I'm lifting you up (oh oh)
I'm letting you down (oh oh)
I'm dancing till dawn (oh oh)
I'm fooling around (oh oh)
I'm not giving up (oh oh)
I'm making your love (oh oh)
This city's made us crazy and we must get out (oh oh)
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More Featured Meanings
Ave Grave
Thee More Shallows
Thee More Shallows
Love in a Vacuum
'Til Tuesday
'Til Tuesday
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.
Step
Ministry
Ministry
Both as a standalone and as part of the DSOTS album, you can take this lyric as read. As a matter of public record, Jourgensen's drug intake was legendary even in the 1980s. By the late 90s, in his own words, he was grappling with massive addiction issues and had lost almost everything: friends, spouse, money and had nearly died more than once. "Dark Side of the Spoon" is a both funny & sad title for an album made by a musical genius who was losing the plot; and this song is a message to his fans & friends saying he knows it. It's painful to listen to so I'm glad the "Keith Richards of industrial metals" wised up and cleaned up. Well done sir.
Bron-Y-Aur Stomp
Led Zeppelin
Led Zeppelin
This is about bronies. They communicate by stomping.
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.
This song is about a guy who loves a girl and is telling her how he's patiently waiting to hear her tell him she loves him too. He is also describing what he's doing in the meantime while he's waiting for her to confess to him.