Taylor Swift is delivering big time on Oct. 21. The singer released the first music video from her album Midnights at 8:00 a.m., giving visual to the very personal song that gives insight into her deepest insecurities. The video begins with Taylor being haunted by ghosts in her own home and hiding in the corner, unsure of what to do as she tries to escape her demons. She’s then visited by someone who appears to be the “devil” version of her, and is there to give her some…life lessons. “Everyone will betray you,” the ‘bad’ Taylor writes on a chalkboard, while the other Taylor viciously takes notes.
She also gives visual to her insecurity about her height, as she enters a room where a group of people is eating dinner and she’s a giant compared to them. At another point, she references her anxieties over her weight, stepping on a scale that simply reads FAT. During the bridge, Taylor gets honest about her fears that people in her life are only using her for her money, as she sets the scene of her own funeral, where her children are fighting over what’s in her will.
Taylor previously revealed that “Anti-Hero” is one of her “favorite songs [she’s] ever written.” In an Instagram video, she added, “I don’t think I’ve ever delved this far into my insecurities in this detail before. I struggled 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. This song realy is a guided tour throughout all of the things I hate about myself.”
“Anti-Hero” features a chorus where Taylor sings, “It’s me, hi, I’m the problem, 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.” She also confesses her fears that her boyfriend, Joe Alwyn, might leave her one day, which is something she’s explored on various songs in the past. “I wake up screaming from dreaming,” she sings. “One day I’ll watch as you’re leaving and life will lose all its meaning.”
A few hours before the release of Midnights, Taylor revealed that she’d actually made multiple music videos for Midnights, with “Anti-Hero” just being the first of them. She already previously confirmed that another music video is coming out on Oct. 25, although she did not specify what song it’s for. She also didn’t confirm any release dates for future music videos or what the plan for rolling them out will be.
The decision to not give too much away matches up with what Taylor has been doing this entire Midnights era. In August, she announced at the VMAs that the album would be coming. In the weeks that followed, she released the tracklist and gave some tidbits about some of the songs. However, she didn’t release any of the tracks before the full album was released at midnight on Oct. 21.
Ahead of the release, Taylor also teased that she also had a “very chaotic surprise” coming at 3:00 a.m. on Oct. 21, as well. It turned out that she had recorded seven extra songs that didn’t make it on the original Midnights. So, she released a 3AM version of the album with the additional tracks. Fans are also expecting her to announce a tour in the coming weeks to coincide with the album.