According to Swift, "Anti-Hero," track three on "Midnights," is "one of my favourite songs I've ever written." In an Instagram video posted on 3 Oct., she explained the meaning behind the song and how personal it is.
"I really don't think I've delved this far into my insecurities in this detail before," she said. "I struggle a lot with the idea that my life has become unmanageably sized. Not to sound too dark, but I struggle with the idea of not feeling like a person." Swift described the song as a "guided tour" about "all the things she tends to hate about [herself]." "It's all of those aspects of the things we dislike and like about ourselves that we have to come to terms with if we're going to be this person," she added. "I like 'Anti-Hero' a lot because I think it's really honest."
Similarly, Swift's "Anti-Hero" video re-creates the singer's struggles, like in one scene where a giant version of herself crawls through a miniature room, and eats miniature food off the table using tiny silverware. The scene is a very literal reflection of Swift feeling like she has an "unmanageably sized" life.
Check out the video for "Anti-Hero" above and dig into the song's lyrics ahead.
VERSE 1
I have this thing where I get older but just never wiser
Midnights become my afternoons
When my depression works the graveyard shift
All of the people I've ghosted stand there in the room
I should not be left to my own devices, they come with prices and vices, I end up in crisis
(Tale as old as time)
I wake up screaming from dreaming
One day I'll watch as you're leaving
'Cause you got tired of my scheming
(for the last time)
CHORUS
It's me
Hi
I'm the problem, it's me
At teatime
Everybody agrees
I'll stare directly at the sun but never in the mirror
It must be exhausting always rooting for the anti-hero
VERSE 2
Sometimes I feel like everybody is a sexy baby
And I'm a monster on the hill
Too big to hang out
Slowly lurching toward your favourite city
Pierced through the heart but never killed
Did you hear my covert narcissism I disguise as altruism like some kind of congressman
(Tale as old as time)
I wake up screaming from dreaming
One day I'll watch as you're leaving
And life will lose all its meaning
(for the last time)
CHORUS
It's me
Hi
I'm the problem, it's me
At teatime
Everybody agrees
I'll stare directly at the sun but never in the mirror
It must be exhausting always rooting for the anti-hero
BRIDGE
I have this dream my daughter-in-law kills me for the money
She thinks I left them in the will
The family gathers 'round and reads it
And then someone screams out
"She's laughing up at us from hell!"
OUTRO
It's me
Hi
I'm the problem, it's me
It's me
Hi
I'm the problem, it's me
It's me
Hi
Everybody agrees
Everybody agrees
CHORUS
It's me
Hi
I'm the problem, it's me (I'm the problem, it's me)
At teatime (teatime)
Everybody agrees (Everybody agrees)
I'll stare directly at the sun but never in the mirror
It must be exhausting always rooting for the anti-hero