Taylor Swift actually had a lot to say about Matty Healy in The Tortured Poets Department
In the time leading up Taylor Swiftlatest album by, The poet group was torturedreleased on Friday, the moody visuals and snippets of sad lyrics scattered online (“I love you, it’s ruining my life,” for example) make it pretty clear that Joe Alwyn, Swift’s longest-running public relationship will not escape the ministerial summit unscathed. Many people were then surprised to learn how much ink Swift had spilled regarding her brief relationship with her front man in 1975, Matty Healy, in the double album.
In the album’s title track, Swift sings about a lover who leaves a typewriter at her apartment: “I think there are things I’ve never said, / Like, ‘Who uses a typewriter? ‘” Anyone can get a typewriter, but that’s just the first hint that the song is about Healy. In a 2018 interview with GQ, “There’s an element of commitment that comes with that ritual,” Healy said of his love of using a typewriter. He says he prefers analog devices for his writing, which he describes as his “dream of falling in love with other pop stars.”
In the chorus of the same song, Swift sings, “You’re not Dylan Thomas, / I’m not Patti Smith, / This is not the Chelsea Hotel, / We are modern idiots.” Notably, Dylan Thomas is a Welsh poet—Healy is English. Smith, like Swift, is American. “You smoked and then ate seven bars of chocolate,” she later recalled, “and then the “tattooed golden retriever” fell asleep. Of course, Healy has significant tattoos and his band’s song “Chocolate” is about smoking. Achieve goal?
While “The Tortured Poets Department” flashes by with a look toward a haughty ex, other references on the album seem to hint at Healy being less gentle, which is why it’s a bit surprising. However, when an anonymous source allegedly told the story Us weekly that Healy and his family were relieved by his role in the album.
“Matty still thinks very highly of Taylor, but we’re all worried about what she might say on the album,” the source said, adding that those close to Healy “couldn’t be happier.” with this record.
“Matty’s family knows about the relationship,” the source shared. “And they were worried that Taylor would tear him apart. Matty has been struggling with life in the public eye and he’s doing great, but the last thing he needs is every Swiftie in the world thinking he’s a villain.
But then there was “I Can Fix Him,” which seemed to reference Healy by addressing “offensive and loud” jokes as well as public opinion about Swift’s love life. “They shake their heads and say, ‘God help her’ / When I tell them he’s my man.” She returns to that theme in “But Daddy I Love Him,” singing, “I know he’s crazy, but he’s the one I want. / I’ll tell you something now, you don’t have to pray for me / Me and my wild boy and all the fun This wild fun. / He’s chaotic, he loves to have fun.”
In “The Smallest Man Who Ever Lived,” Swift laments a guy in a “Jehovah’s Witness suit” who tried to buy drugs “from a friend of my friend” and “went under forget” when they are alone together. Healy often wears a suit when performing, and he has been open about his history of drug use. Swift then wonders “if my summer sparkle is a goal.” She asked, “Were you sent by someone who wanted me dead?” and whether he was a “sleeper internal spy.” “It’s not sexy anymore when it’s not forbidden,” she continued, perhaps explaining the relationship’s abrupt end.
There are many musical references to The 1975 and Healy, such as “Guilty as Sin?” the line references “The Downtown Lights” by The Blue Nile, a song Healy said inspired “Love It If We Made It” by The 1975 and self-proclaimed “favorite band of all time.” his. The frenzied opening of Swift’s “imgonnagetyouback” closely resembles The 1975’s “Looking for Somebody (To Love),” and the parenthetical naming convention, an appropriate naming scheme for the band, is reflected on “ I Can Fix” mentioned above. He (Not really I can).”
Is the song “Peter,” in which Swift touches on the fading bruises of a past love who “got lost in the Lost Boys chapter of your life” almost certainly a reference to Healy, who before This considers himself “a kind of emo Peter Pan who tortures himself in the style of a Pied Piper character” and performs a song called “Lost Boys” with his band? That’s certainly not a stretch to believe.
Will Swifties see Healy in a different light in the post-Poet the world was theirs to say, but the rising tide lifted all boats: The same day Swift’s album was released, The 1975’s single “Robbers” achieved platinum certification by the BRITs. Whether the increased Swift-related interest has anything to do with sales or not, the singer’s date with Healy has undeniably put his band on the radar of many listeners new. Being said to be “the smallest man who ever lived” seems to come with a correspondingly large reward.
Representatives for Swift and Healy did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
