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.
Time it took us
To where the water was
That's what the water gave me
And time goes quicker
Between the two of us
But oh my love, don't forsake me
Take what the water gave me
Lay me down
Let the only sound
Be the overflow
Pockets full of stones
Lay me down
Let the only sound
Be the overflow
And oh, poor Atlas
The world's a beast of a burden
You've been holding on a long time
And all this longing
And the ships are left to rust
That's what the water gave us
So lay me down
Let the only sound
Be the overflow
Pockets full of stones
Lay me down
Let the only sound
Be the overflow
'Cause they took your loved ones
But returned them in exchange for you
But would you have it any other way?
Would you have it any other way?
You couldn't have it any other way
'Cause she's a cruel mistress
And a bargain must be made
But oh, my love, don't forget me
When I let the water take me
So lay me down
Let the only sound
Be the over flow
Pockets full of stones
Lay me down
Let the only sound
Be the overflow
Lay me down
Let the only sound
Be the overflow
Pockets full of stones
Lay me down
Let the only sound
Be the overflow
To where the water was
That's what the water gave me
And time goes quicker
Between the two of us
But oh my love, don't forsake me
Take what the water gave me
Lay me down
Let the only sound
Be the overflow
Pockets full of stones
Lay me down
Let the only sound
Be the overflow
And oh, poor Atlas
The world's a beast of a burden
You've been holding on a long time
And all this longing
And the ships are left to rust
That's what the water gave us
So lay me down
Let the only sound
Be the overflow
Pockets full of stones
Lay me down
Let the only sound
Be the overflow
'Cause they took your loved ones
But returned them in exchange for you
But would you have it any other way?
Would you have it any other way?
You couldn't have it any other way
'Cause she's a cruel mistress
And a bargain must be made
But oh, my love, don't forget me
When I let the water take me
So lay me down
Let the only sound
Be the over flow
Pockets full of stones
Lay me down
Let the only sound
Be the overflow
Lay me down
Let the only sound
Be the overflow
Pockets full of stones
Lay me down
Let the only sound
Be the overflow
Lyrics submitted by KatherineKissMe, edited by Mellow_Harsher
What the Water Gave Me Lyrics as written by Florence Welch Francis Eg White
Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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This is a hauntingly beautiful song about introspection, specifically about looking back at a relationship that started bad and ended so poorly, that the narrator wants to go back to the very beginning and tell himself to not even travel down that road. I believe that the relationship started poorly because of the lines:
"Take me back to the night we met:When the night was full of terrors: And your eyes were filled with tears: When you had not touched me yet"
So, the first night was not a great start, but the narrator pursued the relationship and eventually both overcame the rough start to fall in love with each other:
"I had all and then most of you"
Like many relationships that turn sour, it was not a quick decline, but a gradual one where the narrator and their partner fall out of love and gradually grow apart
"Some and now none of you"
Losing someone who was once everything in your world, who you could confide in, tell your secrets to, share all the most intimate parts of your life, to being strangers with that person is probably one of the most painful experiences a person can go through. So Painful, the narrator wants to go back in time and tell himself to not even pursue the relationship.
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Learning about Virginia Woolf was rather interesting and the painting that inspired the title was pretty cool.
The reference to witches is rather interesting but for saying, "that's how it was back then." Yeah, back in the 17th century perhaps, during the Salem Witch Trials. Perhaps centuries before in rural Europe. These superstitions quickly faded away as the industrial revolution clouded the skies with black smog and littered the streets with poverty stricken families(forced out of rural lifestyles by land owners and the agricultural revolution) and trash. Again, interesting, but I find it to be irrelevant as Woolf lived during the turn of the century and died during WWII.
Additionally, the overflow of water, in my honest opinion, is simply referring to the water displaced by the person drowning with pockets full of stones. Volume is the measure of how much an object displaces when placed into a fluid object, be it a liquid or gas.
I would prefer to not repeat anything that has been said thus far but I would view this as the ever ironic death by water. To die by that which has kept us alive for so long.
I also find that drowning oneself with a pocket full of stones to be tragic yet eerily romantic, reminiscent of a lover's suicide.
Ignoring the fact of death, I draw that emphasis of the fact that life is overwhelming like aspects of nature. Everything seems to cause stress and leads us into crippling depression and uncomfortable insanity. Her, the character embraces water, a liquid commonly associated with calmness and destructiveness. In the sense of the former, she engulfs herself in the soothing and restorative powers of water and becomes one with nature. She lets the water take her; take her to the dark and frightening path of death.
A path with no known end or destination, a path where angels fear to tread.