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.
1, 2 We're taking shots in here, you want one?
Yeah yeah yeah
Yeah yeah yeah
Cheers to the freakin' weekend
I drink to that, yeah yeah
Oh let the Jameson sink in
I drink to that, yeah yeah
Don't let the bastards get ya down
Turn it around with another round
There's a party at the bar
Everybody putcha glasses up and I drink to that (yeah yeah yeah)
I drink to that (yeah yeah yeah, yeah yeah yeah)
Life's too short to be sittin' round miserable
And people gon' talk whether you doing bad or good, yeah
Got a drink on my mind and my mind on my money, yeah yeah
Looking so bomb, gonna find me a honey
Got my Ray Bans on and I'm feelin' hella cool tonight, yeah
Everybody's vibin' so don't nobody start a fight, yeah
Cheers to the freakin' weekend
I drink to that, yeah yeah
Oh, let the Jameson sink in
I drink to that, yeah yeah
Don't let the bastards get ya down
Turn it around with another round
There's a party at the bar
Everybody putcha glasses up and I drink to that (yeah yeah yeah)
I drink to that (yeah yeah yeah, yeah yeah yeah)
Bout to hop on the bar
Put it all on my card tonight, yeah
Might be mad in the morning
But you know we goin' hard tonight
It's getting coyote ugly up in here, no Tyra
It's only up from here, no downward spiral
Got my Ray Bans on and I'm feelin' hella cool tonight, yeah
Everybody's vibin' so don't nobody start a fight, yeah
Cheers to the freakin' weekend
I drink to that, yeah yeah
Oh let the Jameson sink in
I drink to that, yeah yeah
Don't let the bastards get ya down
Turn it around with another round
There's a party at the bar
Everybody putcha glasses up and I drink to that (yeah yeah yeah, yeah yeah yeah)
I drink to that (yeah yeah yeah, yeah yeah yeah)
And I drink to that
I drink to that
(Cheers to the freakin' weekend
I drink to that, yeah yeah
Oh let the Jameson sink in)
I drink to that, yeah yeah
Don't let the bastards get ya down
Turn it around with another round
There's a party at the bar
Everybody putcha glasses up and I drink to that
I drink to that
And I drink to that
I drink to that
And I drink to
Yeah yeah yeah
Yeah yeah yeah
Cheers to the freakin' weekend
I drink to that, yeah yeah
Oh let the Jameson sink in
I drink to that, yeah yeah
Don't let the bastards get ya down
Turn it around with another round
There's a party at the bar
Everybody putcha glasses up and I drink to that (yeah yeah yeah)
I drink to that (yeah yeah yeah, yeah yeah yeah)
Life's too short to be sittin' round miserable
And people gon' talk whether you doing bad or good, yeah
Got a drink on my mind and my mind on my money, yeah yeah
Looking so bomb, gonna find me a honey
Got my Ray Bans on and I'm feelin' hella cool tonight, yeah
Everybody's vibin' so don't nobody start a fight, yeah
Cheers to the freakin' weekend
I drink to that, yeah yeah
Oh, let the Jameson sink in
I drink to that, yeah yeah
Don't let the bastards get ya down
Turn it around with another round
There's a party at the bar
Everybody putcha glasses up and I drink to that (yeah yeah yeah)
I drink to that (yeah yeah yeah, yeah yeah yeah)
Bout to hop on the bar
Put it all on my card tonight, yeah
Might be mad in the morning
But you know we goin' hard tonight
It's getting coyote ugly up in here, no Tyra
It's only up from here, no downward spiral
Got my Ray Bans on and I'm feelin' hella cool tonight, yeah
Everybody's vibin' so don't nobody start a fight, yeah
Cheers to the freakin' weekend
I drink to that, yeah yeah
Oh let the Jameson sink in
I drink to that, yeah yeah
Don't let the bastards get ya down
Turn it around with another round
There's a party at the bar
Everybody putcha glasses up and I drink to that (yeah yeah yeah, yeah yeah yeah)
I drink to that (yeah yeah yeah, yeah yeah yeah)
And I drink to that
I drink to that
(Cheers to the freakin' weekend
I drink to that, yeah yeah
Oh let the Jameson sink in)
I drink to that, yeah yeah
Don't let the bastards get ya down
Turn it around with another round
There's a party at the bar
Everybody putcha glasses up and I drink to that
I drink to that
And I drink to that
I drink to that
And I drink to
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Bet you didn't think Avril Lavigne would be sampled anytime soon, but this track samples Lavigne's 2002 ballad "I'm With You." As credit is given to the writers of the sampled song, "Cheers" was officially written by Stacey Barthe, Corey Gibson, Andrew Harr, Jermaine Jackson, Avril Lavigne and the record production team The Matrix, and the Runners produced the cut. Another Lavigne connection, another song on the album is called "Complicated," the same title of Avril's first hit.
Rihanna told Spin magazine: "It's a song you would hear in a bar but I think you could also hear it all over pop radio. It's really grungy and melodic and catchy. And the way the producers sampled Avril – it's like she's an instrument. It's really cool how they combined [the song] with her vocals."
Rihanna told MTV News about this tune: "I love that song. That is one of my favorite songs on the album. It makes you feel like celebrating. It gives you a great feeling inside like you want to go out and have a drink. ... People can't wait for the weekend." Rihanna added that though her busy schedule doesn't really warrant her having the weekend off, she still loves them. "I work all weekend, but I still can't wait. I still get excited about it being Friday, even though I'm not getting the weekend off," she explained. "I got to be up at 5 a.m. on Saturday anyway. I just like the fact that it's Friday. It's just something that became a habit, so you get that feeling Friday night [and] it doesn't matter what time you have to wake up on Saturday. You want to get excited about the weekend, you want to go out and have a drink with your girls, who have the weekend off."
Rihanna told MTV News why the decision was made to sample Lavigne, rather than getting the Canadian pop singer to come in and re-record the vocal for the song. "I asked the same thing, but when I heard the track, it was already embedded in the music, so the producers already had it that way," she explained. "But it wouldn't have made a difference. It would have sounded the same. But I'm just glad that we could use her sample, because it became such a huge part of the instrumental that if it were not to be in the song, it would change the whole vibe of the song."
Rihanna told Q magazine the "don't let the bastards get you down" refrain of this song is a riposte to, you guessed it, bastards. "There are always haters saying I'm too this and that. Bastards in the media. Bastards on the internet," she complained.
The song's music video was directed by SRP Records founder Evan Rogers, and Ciara Pardo. It features footage from Rihanna's Loud Tour concert in Kensington Oval, Barbados, on August 5, 2011 and Avril Lavigne is seen raising her glass to the camera before being pushed into a swimming pool on a skateboard. Jay-Z, Kanye West and Cee Lo Green also make cameo appearances as all three performed on certain dates during Rihanna's tour.