Love Strikes Again: “Hits Different” Meaning, Explained

Hits Different is an unusually light hearted breakup song, and was initially a bonus track on the Midnights Target edition. Fans loved it so much that Taylor put it on the ‘Til Dawn Edition of her album, and it’s still a crowd favorite. 

It’s one of the wordiest bridges Taylor has ever written, and the entire track uses some interesting and layered metaphors to describe a heart wrenching breakup. 

But what do the lyrics mean, and who could this song be about? 

Here’s my full breakdown of Taylor’s Hits Different meaning, line by line. 

Cover image for a lyrical analysis of Taylor Swift's "Hits Different." A blue/purple starry sky background features bold text overlaid, with author's logo Swiftly Sung Stories at the bottom.

Hits Different by Taylor Swift

  • Title: Hits Different
  • Written by: Taylor Swift, Aaron Dessner, Jack Antonoff
  • Track: 21, Midnights (‘Til Dawn Edition)
  • Pen: Glitter Gel Pen
  • Lyrics from Genius

Hits Different Song Meaning: Narrative Summary

  • Setting: After an important relationship ends. 
  • Characters: Narrator (Taylor), subject (ex-love, “you”) 
  • Mood: Lighthearted depression, self-loathing. 
  • Conflict: Breakup. 
  • Inciting Incident: “I washed my hands of us at the club” (they broke up). 
  • Quest: Try to figure out why this breakup hits so hard. 
  • Symbols & Metaphors: “hits different,” “washed my hands of us,” “mess of me,” “threw up on the street,” “waiting for a bus that never shows,” “just start walkin’ on,” “each bar plays our song,” “love is a lie,” “shit my friends say,” “catastrophic blues,” “moving on,” “cause it’s you,” “ these Kens,” “ghost,” “rip the band-aid off,” “asshole outlaw,” “freedom felt like summer,” “sun burns my heart and the sand hurts my feelings,” “never don’t cry,” “sadness is contagious,” “slur your name,” “stopped receiving invitations,” “artifacts,” “cursed the space,” “evidence,” “wound is still bleedin’,” “another metaphor,” “wrinkle in time,” “crease by your eyes,” “kill off the main guy,” “still melt your world,” “Argumentative, antithetical dream girl,” “your key in the door,” “take me away.” 
  • Lesson: Some breakups really, really mess with your head. 

Who is Hits Different About? 

Taylor has never revealed who may have inspired Hits Different. As Midnights is a concept album about sleepless nights throughout her life, it could be about any of her past relationships. 

What is Hits Different About? 

Hits Different is about how some breakups hit you harder than others. Some people are really difficult to get over and move on from, as Taylor describes in the lyrics. 

The central metaphor is love as a drug with a nasty hangover. Some “drugs” (lovers) are much harder to recover from, and can cause awful side-effects. 

Hits Different Meaning: Line by Line

Annotated lyrics from Taylor Swift's "Hits Different," noting important hidden meanings and analyzing her use of literary devices.
The first verse reads: "I washed my hands of us at the club

You made a mess of me

I pictured you with other girls in love

Then threw up on the street

Like waiting for a bus that never shows

You just start walkin' on

They say that if it's right, you know

Each bar plays our song

Nothing has ever felt so wrong"

“I washed my hands of us at the club,” she says in the first verse. She’s out on the town partying, and trying to forget her lost lover. 

“You made a mess of me,” she says to her ex. Like in Clean, this breakup has muddied her mental state. In that track she says, “You’re still all over me / Like a wine-stained dress I can’t wear anymore.” She’s using a similar metaphor here. 

“I pictured you with other girls in love,” she says, “Then threw up on the street” outside the club. She’s been partying to try to forget this person, but – like the love potion that intoxicated her – too much can be poisonous. She has a love hangover. 

Trying to move on is “Like waiting for a bus that never shows,” she says, “You just start walkin’ on.” She can’t get over this person, so she wanders aimlessly through her days and nights, with no particular destination. 

“They say that if it’s right, you know,” she says, using the common relationship proverb. She didn’t know that it was right, but she does know that breaking up and living without this person feels wrong. 

“Each bar plays our song,” she says, trying to have a distracting night out. “Nothing has ever felt so wrong” for her, having to listen to their song when she’s trying to forget. It’s a constant reminder of what she lost. 

Chorus: “It Hits Different ‘Cause It’s You”

Annotated lyrics from Taylor Swift's "Hits Different," noting important hidden meanings and analyzing her use of literary devices.
The chorus reads: "Oh, my, love is a lie

Shit my friends say to get me by

It hits different

It hits different this time

Catastrophic blues

Movin' on was always easy for me to do

It hits different

It hits different 'cause it's you

('Cause it's you)"

“Oh, my, love is a lie,” Taylor’s friends tell her to try to help her cope. It wasn’t real anyway, they say, so she should just forget about it. 

“Shit my friends say to get me by,” she says, “It hits different.” This empty advice isn’t working this time. It used to ring true and help her move on, but she can’t get past this loss. 

“It hits different this time” describes this particular love drug – this one person – as having very different effects than others she’s taken. It’s given her the worst relationship hangover of her life. 

She has “catastrophic blues,” meaning she’s totally paralyzed by depression. Every shade of blue, which Taylor uses to mean heartbreak, is all over her, and she can’t get clean. 

“Movin’ on was always easy for me to do,” she reflects of other breakups, but this one “hits different ’cause it’s you.” This lover will not be easy to get over, and she can’t move on. 

Verse 2: “The Sun Burns My Heart And the Sand Hurts My Feelings”

Annotated lyrics from Taylor Swift's "Hits Different," noting important hidden meanings and analyzing her use of literary devices.
The 2nd verse reads: "I used to switch out these Kens, I'd just ghost

Rip the band-aid off and skip town likе an asshole outlaw

Freedom felt like summеr then on the coast

Now the sun burns my heart and the sand hurts my feelings

And I never don't cry (And I never don't cry) at the bar

Yeah, my sadness is contagious (My sadness is contagious)

I slur your name 'til someone puts me in a car

I stopped receiving invitations"

“I used to switch out these Kens,” she says of her past relationships, “I’d just ghost.”

Her previous boyfriends were like interchangeable dolls: insignificant, replaceable, and unimportant. She’d just ghost them without a second thought, because they didn’t really matter to her. 

She’d “Rip the band-aid off and skip town likе an asshole outlaw.” She’d break up with them quickly and just run away, like running from the law. 

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This is a common criminal metaphor that Taylor has used in breakup songs, like in Getaway Car, cowboy like me, and many others. 

After she would cut and run, “Freedom felt like summеr then on the coast.” She used to enjoy the newfound freedom that came after each break up, describing it as a warm, beachy summer. 

This is also a common Taylor metaphor: summer as a carefree, lighthearted, and free season. But this time, it’s not working. 

Now that she’s escaped this relationship, “the sun burns my heart and the sand hurts my feelings.” What used to bring her joy – the thrill of the escape – is only causing more pain. Everything hurts, especially the things that used to bring her pleasure.

“And I never don’t cry at the bar,” she says. She’s drinking again, trying to forget this person. But the alcohol only makes it worse. She’s substituting one drug for another, and it only digs her in deeper. 

“Yeah, my sadness is contagious,” she says. She brings down the mood around her, drinking more and more until she’s unbearable. 

“I slur your name ’til someone puts me in a car,” she says, her drunken thoughts only circling around her lost lover. The bartender cuts her off, taking away her coping mechanism, and ships her home to wallow all alone. 

“I stopped receiving invitations,” she says. Her friends have gotten sick of her “catastrophic blues,” and don’t want to be around her anymore. 

Bridge Part 1: “I Trace The Evidence”

Annotated lyrics from Taylor Swift's "Hits Different," noting important hidden meanings and analyzing her use of literary devices.
The first half of the bridge reads: "I find the artifacts, cried over a hat

Cursed the space that I needed

I trace the evidence, make it make some sense

Why the wound is still bleedin'

You were the one that I loved

Don't need another metaphor, it's simple enough"

After she was sent home from the bar in the second verse, she continues wallowing. 

“I find the artifacts,” she says, “cried over a hat.” She’s going through his things and finds evidence of her lost lover. She’s so sensitive – and drunk – that she cries while holding his hat. It’s the only thing she has left. 

She “Cursed the space that I needed,” which describes both her physical setting – inside the space of her empty house – and her former need for space in the relationship. She was the one who broke it off, and she regrets it deeply. 

“I trace the evidence,” she says, “make it make some sense.” She’s looking at this loss like a criminal investigator, trying to find the moment it all went wrong. 

She was the one who broke up with him, and she can’t figure out “why the wound is still bleedin’.” She should be over this by now. Why isn’t she? 

“You were the one that I loved,” she says, “Don’t need another metaphor, it’s simple enough.” It was simple: she loved him. 

But this is a meta moment: she doesn’t need to use these complicated metaphors to describe why she loved him. It should be simple, right? So why does she keep trying to make it make sense with complex lyrics? 

Bridge Part 2: “Argumentative, Antithetical Dream Girl”

Annotated lyrics from Taylor Swift's "Hits Different," noting important hidden meanings and analyzing her use of literary devices.
The second half of the bridge reads: "A wrinkle in time like the crease by your eyes

This is why they shouldn't kill off the main guy

Dreams of your hair and your stare and sense of belief

In the good in the world, you once believed in me

And I felt you and I held you for a while

Bet I could still melt your world

Argumentative, antithetical dream girl"

Even though she said she didn’t need any more metaphors, in the second half of the bridge she dives right into another one (she is an unreliable narrator, after all).

They were “a wrinkle in time like the crease by your eyes,” referencing the classic 1960’s novel by Madeleine L’Engle. The novel is about time travel, and trying to go back to prevent catastrophes. 

Taylor describes their lost love as a “wrinkle in time like the crease by your eyes,” yearning to go back in time so she could be face-to-face with him again. Can she turn back the clock and erase her mistakes? 

“This is why they shouldn’t kill off the main guy,” she says, in another meta moment. She’s metaphorically killed off her protagonist, and the plot of her life is now boring and nonsensical. 

She can’t go back in time, so she’s stuck in “Dreams of your hair and your stare and sense of belief.” She can only hold him in her dreams, and gets lost in this fantasy world. 

He believed “In the good in the world,” she says, and “you once believed in me.” He was a good person, and he thought she was a good person. So why did she throw it away? 

“And I felt you and I held you for a while,” she says. She let the light in – she let the good into her heart – but then, because she’s the anti-hero, she pushed it away. 

“Bet I could still melt your world,” she says, bragging that she could still get him back if she wanted to. Like in False God, “I still do it for you babe,” she proclaims. 

She’s the “Argumentative, antithetical dream girl,” meaning she’s the opposite of a dream girl. She’ll fight you every step of the way, break up with you, and then try to get you back. 

She’s maddening, but isn’t that part of her charm? Like in Blank Space, she can “make all the tables turn” on a whim. And isn’t that exciting? Or is it just baffling? 

Verse 3: “Have They Come To Take Me Away?”

Annotated lyrics from Taylor Swift's "Hits Different," noting important hidden meanings and analyzing her use of literary devices.
The third verse reads: "I heard your key turn in the door down the hallway

Is that your key in the door?

Is it okay? Is it you?

Or have they come to take me away?

To take me away"

The third verse ponders whether her pining for him has actually brought him back. She’s still at home, and still drunk or very hungover. 

“I heard your key turn in the door down the hallway,” she says, “Is that your key in the door?” Is this real, or is she imagining things? Has she actually caused a “wrinkle in time” and brought him back into her life? 

“Is it okay? Is it you?” she wonders, “Or have they come to take me away?” Is there an intruder, or is it him? Or is this all in her head, and they’re coming to take her away to the mental asylum? 

“To take me away” repeats again, and this time it has a double meaning. Are they taking her away to the asylum, or has he come to sweep her away into a love story again? 

Side note: The Tortured Poets Department’s Fortnight will pick up here, where Hits Different left off: “I was supposed to be sent away, but they forgot to come and get me.”

Outro: “Catastrophic Blues”

Annotated lyrics from Taylor Swift's "Hits Different," noting important hidden meanings and analyzing her use of literary devices.
The outro reads: "Oh, my, love is a lie

Shit my friends say to get me by

'Cause it's you

Catastrophic blues

Movin' on was always easy for me to do

It hits different (Yeah)

It hits different 'cause it's you"

The outro repeats the chorus, and this time we have to question whether “Oh, my, love is a lie” can also read as “oh, my love is a lie.” Is this real, or is it all in her head? 

“Shit my friends say to get me by” rings hollow, because she’s “stopped receiving invitations.” She’s in her house, all alone, so who are the “friends”? 

It’s the voices in her head, and it’s always been the voices in her head. She can talk herself into it, and she can talk herself out of it. It’s all a muddled mess of “catastrophic blues.” 

She’s fallen into a deep, dark, drunken hole of depression, and she no longer knows which way is up. 

This type of depression “hits different ‘cause it’s you.” This loss is so huge – or she’s making it so huge in her head – that she can’t dig her way out. 

There is no drug that can cure her love hangover, but she’ll keep trying different substances, until they “take me away.” 

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Hits Different Lyrics Meaning: Final Thoughts 

If Midnights is all the sleepless nights of Taylor’s life, Hits Different is a night of drunken wallowing. She circles round and round this loss without any clarity, trying anything to make it make sense. 

Is the cure for a love hangover more love? Or is it the type of hangover that only time – and lots of cleansing water – will reverse? 

She doesn’t know, and she just keeps drinking and falling further down her rabbit hole of depression.

We’ve all been there, in that long, sleepless night, reaching for anything to make us feel better. Taylor has just set that feeling to music, and done it perfectly. 

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