After reading the GQ article he did a while back, I came back to this song and it hit really hard. After all the experiences he had with his mother and his parents tumultuous relationship, this song really reads like a poem of that childhood era. Things had to change, for him and his older brother. Being reminded that you’re stuck there with nowhere left to run but to your own escapism somewhere far. Leaving home and realizing the reality of why that came to be the way it did; to leave something traumatic behind. I read it as...

After reading the GQ article he did a while back, I came back to this song and it hit really hard. After all the experiences he had with his mother and his parents tumultuous relationship, this song really reads like a poem of that childhood era. Things had to change, for him and his older brother. Being reminded that you’re stuck there with nowhere left to run but to your own escapism somewhere far. Leaving home and realizing the reality of why that came to be the way it did; to leave something traumatic behind. I read it as in a sense, you are always somewhere there because of some imaginary shackles those experiences have left on you. I was really attached to this song all of high school, never understanding why. Now I know our experiences mirrored each others in a bizarre way. Love u kev

I think it's about a holiday romance/affair.

I think it's about a holiday romance/affair.

The first verse is all about being on a plane flying somewhere (or back home?) The towns look like circuit boards as the night falls. The stadium's lights look like flares from the air. The warning signs in the air we breathe are fasten seatbelt and no smoking signs coming from the vents supplying recycled air. Beat the sun as long as they keep moving - the timezone changes as you fly. I guess a flight to Paris isn't really gonna do that, so it suggests long haul flight.

The first verse is all about being on a plane flying somewhere (or back home?) The towns look like circuit boards as the night falls. The stadium's lights look like flares from the air. The warning signs in the air we breathe are fasten seatbelt and no smoking signs coming from the vents supplying recycled air. Beat the sun as long as they keep moving - the timezone changes as you fly. I guess a flight to Paris isn't really gonna do that, so it suggests long haul flight.

They've got Polaroids...

They've got Polaroids and a necklace with sprinkled words on it from their holiday?

Then she gets into a cab to go her separate way and the rain unloads.

Maybe it's an affair. She's married but writes to him anyway. The promise being her wedding vows. She spends the evening unpacking books from boxes that he sends her? I can't make sense of that part really. Multiple boxes would be a lot of books. More like moving house. Or she lives abroad and was moving abroad to where they met. She's on the plane home with him to visit a loved one and the promise is just that she promised her friend/parents she'd visit, so it's time to call the end since she's only home for a week or so before heading back out.