From the album Twenty Twenty
This is a song about realizing you have become the exact thing you were warned about. The mirror here is not metaphorical. Joe Keery is literally looking at himself and seeing someone hollow, someone who needs to be told to back off. Roddy is both a name and a command to himself.
Cuttin' the page / Things are looking up / That time is out of my reach
He is trying to convince himself everything is fine while admitting the past is already gone. The attempt at optimism crashes into loss in three lines.
And somethin' struck me / It struck me deep / It knocked me to my knees
The realization lands physically. This is not gradual self-awareness, it is a sudden collision with what you have become.
Roddy, step on back from me
He is telling himself to get away from himself. The only way to survive who you are now is distance, even if that distance is impossible.
So man in the mirror / Make another home here / You're put together but clear / You're lackin' substance not fear
The insult is surgical. He looks fine on the outside but there is nothing underneath. Fear is easy. Substance is what is missing.
Locked in retrograde
Retrograde means moving backward. He is stuck rewinding, unable to move forward, caught in a loop of the person he used to be or the mistakes he keeps making.
The song ends mid-loop, still locked in retrograde, still telling Roddy to step back. There is no resolution because the problem is structural. You cannot outrun the mirror.