Love and Theft's 'Runnin' Out of Air' lyrics take a different spin from what fans are used to hearing from the duo. But the marriage of melody, music and lyrics were the perfect fit, which is why the pair decided to pick the tune as their latest single to hit country radio airwaves.

"I had that title in my phone... these days the phone is the new notepad!" songwriter Josh Osbourne tells Taste of Country of the song he co-wrote with Matt Jenkins and Shane McAnally. "I have all these titles and ideas in my phone. We were writing at Shane's house, and on the way over to his house, I didn't necessarily have that title in mind, but I started hearing the music. It just had this cool vibe to it."

He continues, "When we got settled at Shane's house, we were just tossing ideas around. I told Matt and Shane about the music that hit me on the way over, and I saw the title that I thought might work with it. We went over the scenario of seeing somebody that you're still in love with and it just takes all the oxygen out of the room."

"Well I gotta catch my breath / When I see you walking' in / You're crawling back in my head / Stealin' the oxygen / And everyone else in here / Disappears but the two of us / And the room starts to spin / Around the chandelier / In the buzz of the crowd / I can feel the rush / 'Cause your clouding up my atmosphere / Everybody's got somebody who gets them the way you got me / I still want you, I can't stop me," they wrote in the opening 'Runnin' Out of Air' lyrics.

"After that, we just really liked the idea and liked the feel," recalls Osbourne. "We felt like that was an idea that a lot of people could identify with about still wanting to be with someone but knowing you can't be with them."

"Girl I wanna run right to ya / Then I wanna run away / Girl, I gotta hand it to ya / You know how to make me pay / Girl, I wish I never knew ya / 'Cause every time I see ya standing there / Oh, feels like I'm runnin' out of air," the writers penned in the chorus.

"Love and Theft did such a great job with it," Osbourne insists, praising the duo's Stephen Barker Liles and Eric Gunderson. "When we finished writing it, we were like, I don't know who is going to record this and I don't know if it's right for anybody, but we like it! Luckily, to Love and Theft's credit, they took a chance on it. It's not a normal song that you would pitch to them or anything like that. To their credit, they were willing to take a chance on something a little bit outside the box. I'm not just saying this for my own interest, but I hope it does well for them because I think more people should take chances and do things that push their boundaries a little bit. I think it makes better art and it makes better music."

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