The Antlers - Blight Lyrics (2025) | Song Meaning

Blight Lyrics


Quickly, I need it!
Shipped in a day, oceans away
I'm willing to pay
To get the best that I can
The best that I can get

I've got to feed it!
High in demand, short in supply
I'm not a bad guy
I do the best that I can
The best that I can do

Caterpillars hatching
Swinging on thread with fanatical spread
They need to be fed
To get the most that they can, the most that they can get

Defoliating, chawed up trees
With skeletal leaves, a many-legged disease
They do the best that they can
The best that they can do
Sleeping and sated, nesting on the bark
Evolving in the dark, prepared to disembark
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Blight Song Meaning (The Antlers)

At its core, "Blight" reads like a quiet crisis of conscience: a narrator confessing complicity in environmental destruction while trying to maintain personal innocence. Lines such as “Shipped in a day, oceans away, I’m willing to pay” and “I’m not a bad guy, I do the best that I can” embody the tension between convenience and guilt—between modern consumer habits and their hidden toll. The image of “caterpillars hatching … defoliating” spins the metaphor outward: small, voracious forces quietly ravage the environment, just as everyday choices chip away at ecological health.

Musically, the sparse, rising pulse mirrors the creeping acceleration of harm. The track doesn’t shout—its urgency comes in slow crescendos and thoughtful restraint, calling listeners inward rather than assaulting them outward.

1. Backstory and Artist Intent

Peter Silberman has spoken candidly about how "Blight" marks a shift from previous, more oblique lyricism to a more direct confrontation with climate anxiety, waste, and human detachment. What started as meditative walks around his upstate New York home studio—listening to chainsaws, inhaling wildfire smoke, watching nature decay—became a crucible for the record’s concept. Silberman frames "Blight" less as personal confession than as a witness to collective damage, where pollution, environmental collapse, waste, and consumerism weighed heavily on him.

Critics place Blight as the Antlers’ reckoning with collective mortality—the fragility of ecosystems and species rather than just individual grief. The album doesn’t promise redemption or easy resolution; instead, it dwells in questions—“Will we be forgiven?”—and silences, as the closing instrumental, They Lost All of Us, seems to echo the emptiness of what remains.

2. Emotional Resonance and Audience Connection

"Blight" forces a reckoning: it holds a mirror to the listener’s habits and apathy, asking us to consider what we sacrifice for convenience. But it also carries sorrow, resignation, and humility—not blame. That delicate balance is what makes the song, and the record as a whole, haunting and humane. To many fans, it doesn’t just sound beautiful; it feels urgent and necessary.
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FAQ Section
Who sung the song "Blight" by The Antlers?
The song "Blight" was sung by The Antlers.
Who wrote the song "Blight" by The Antlers?
Peter Silberman & Michael Lerner.
Who produced the song "Blight" by The Antlers?
Peter Silberman.

Music Video


Song Details

Artist: The Antlers
Album: Blight
Genre: Rock
Language: English
Released: October 10, 2025