Toronto-based trio The Rural Alberta Advantage (Nils Edenloff, Amy Cole, an… Read Full Bio ↴Toronto-based trio The Rural Alberta Advantage (Nils Edenloff, Amy Cole, and Paul Banwatt) play indie-rock songs about hometowns and heartbreak, born out of images from growing up in Central and Northern Alberta. They sing about summers in the Rockies and winters on the farm, ice breakups in the spring time and the oil boom’s charm, the mine workers on compressed, the equally depressed, the city’s slow growth and the country’s wild rose, but mostly the songs just try to embrace the advantage of growing up in Alberta.

The Air
The Rural Alberta Advantage Lyrics

Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴

The air is unbearably harmful tonight
Take me away from these old city lights
And I would be better off
With your lovely limbs just wrapped around me tonight

This love is unbearably harmful tonight
Should we call it quits
And end it for the night

Could we be better off with someone else just wrapped around us tonight

Overall Meaning

In The Rural Alberta Advantage's song The Air, the listener is transported to a city filled with harmful air, forcing the singer to long for escape. The air becomes a metaphor for the suffocation felt in a stagnant relationship, causing the singer to crave the embrace of another. The longing is palpable in the chorus, as they ask if perhaps they would be better off with someone else holding them tonight.

The song is an exploration of desire and the need for escape. The verses speak to the darkness of the city, the suffocation of the air, and the yearning for freedom, while the chorus speaks to the emotional suffocation in a relationship. The juxtaposition of the physical harm caused by pollution and the emotional damage caused by a difficult relationship is effective in conveying the sense of desperation felt by the singer.

Line by Line Meaning

The air is unbearably harmful tonight
This love is toxic and unhealthy right now

Take me away from these old city lights
Let's escape the distractions and noise of our surroundings

And I would be better off
I believe I would be happier

With your lovely limbs just wrapped around me tonight
If we could be physically close and comfort each other

Contributed by Jeremiah Y. Suggest a correction in the comments below.

To comment on or correct specific content, highlight it

TRACKS