Songfacts®:

• "Hate It Here" was written by Wilco frontman, Jeff Tweedy. The song is about Tweedy keeping himself occupied with household chores while he waits for his estranged lover to come home: "I try to stay busy, I do the dishes, I mow the lawn, I try to keep myself occupied, even though I know you're not coming home."
• Jeff Tweedy told Entertainment Weekly that he thinks the song is "funniest thing" he has ever written: "Oh God, I think that song's hilarious! What's not funnier than that? For me, it's like the funniest line I've ever sung: 'What am I gonna do when I run out of shirts to fold?' My wife calls it 'the liar song' because I don't actually know how to use a washing machine."
• This is an example of a Sky Blue Sky track that shows Wilco's diversion into a less experimental and more straightforward sound. Jeff Tweedy singing about doing the dishes and mowing the lawn is completely devoid of metaphor - something unlikely to be found on a Yankee Hotel Foxtrot cut.