“The Archer” is the third release from the upcoming 7th studio album ‘Lover‘ by Taylor Swift. Living up to the infamous “5th song on the album” vibe, this new single is the saddest song we have heard from Taylor in a long time.
“The Archer” finds Taylor’s ‘1989’ producer Jack Antonoff teaming up for the lyrics. In a Livestream done on July 22nd, Taylor Swift introduced the song. She spoke: “so track 5 is kind of a tradition that…I was putting a very vulnerable, personal, honest, and emotional song as track 5.”
The list of track 5’s on Taylor’s previous albums are; “Cold As You,” “White Horse,” “Dear John,” “All Too Well,” “All You Had To Do Was Stay,” and “Delicate” in chronological order. So it lives to reason that “The Archer” comes as a very vulnerable track being the hunter and the hunted as well in life.
The cupids on “ME!” were an easter egg for this song, and in the music video for “You Need To Calm Down“, in which fellow musician Hayley Kiyoko shoots a bow and arrow at a target with the number 5 in the centre.
Download “The Archer” on Apple Music and Amazon
“The Archer” talks about being a solo rider in the race of life. The people who started out as friends have now turned into enemies. Only The One is expected to stay by your side in this game. Taylor says she is ready for the combat-the battle of love. And in this war, Taylor becomes the hunter and the hunted.
Referencing to her long list of ex-lovers, Taylor says “easy they come, easy they go,” because love has come and gone out of her life quite frequently. However, Taylor Swift is presently in a long-running relationship with Brit actor Joe Alwyn.
In the second verse, Taylor Swift sings about being in love with that one person despite whatever the flaws they may have. Although Taylor keeps on looking for the ‘dark sides’ of her partner, she knows that she is perfectly comfortable with him even knowing the flaws. Cutting off your nose to spite your face is a metaphor for doing something to hurt someone else and it backfiring on the same person.
Taylor Swift also mentioned that this is not the third single off the album, and she has not made a music video for this as of now.
Let us know what you think about this brand new song by Taylor Swift in the comments below.