Taylor Swift's release day always comes with a tangle of real-life allusions to ancient myths, literary heroes, and local bars alike. The 31-track (!) “Department of Tortured Poets” is packed with new poets to read, bands to discover, and strange vacation towns to visit, and here's a brief field guide to the best of them. While you smash “Florida!!” When you order your wellness checks on 1975 Matty Healy today, be sure to submit “Just Kids” by Patti Smith to the book lists as well.
charlie puth
(Courtesy of the San Diego Symphony)
charlie puth
The pop singer behind the “Furious 7” tribute to the late Paul Walker “See You Again,” along with the Top 10 hits “Attention” and “We Don't Talk Anymore.” She's right, it's underrated!
Dylan Thomas
The Welsh poet (and famously volatile drinker) behind much-loved poems like “And Death Shall Have No Dominion,” “Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night,” beloved in America for his broadcast of “A Child's Christmas in Wales.” . A famous resident of New York's Chelsea Hotel, he died at age 39 from pneumonia and other ailments.
Patricia Smith
(Evan Agostini / Evan Agostini/invision/ap)
Patricia Smith
The poet and rocker defined an entire generation of New York artists, from beginning to end. His memoir of his friendship with photographer Robert Mapplethorpe, “Just Kids,” has inspired bright young people since time immemorial, and albums like “Horses” and “Easter” still sound as invigorating as the day they were released.
The Blue Nile
Scottish electronic rock band known for their smooth, haunting synth arrangements, whose 1989 album “Hats” was famous for being a formative album for 1975's Matty Healy, who was especially fond of the song “Downtown Lights.”
Clara Arco
The silent film era actress who popularized the term “It Girl,” personified the free-spirited “flapper” of the era and later became a cautionary tale of how the entertainment industry devoured beautiful, young women. talented
destination
A small town in the Florida Panhandle, halfway between the military town of Pensacola and the “Redneck Riviera” of Panama City Beach, near where Hurricane Michael hit in 2018.
Jehovah's Witnesses
A branch of Christianity famous for going door to door recruiting people dressed in dark suits and who look a lot like a certain British rock singer.
Stevie Nicks performs at the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony in New York on March 29, 2019.
(Evan Agostini / Evan Agostini/invision/ap)
stevie nicks
The Fleetwood Mac singer, whose ethereal and mystical aesthetic has long been an inspiration for the songwriting, voice and fashion of young singers, but, as Swift said, being celestial is “hell on earth.”
Taylor Swift
She finally gets meta when talking about a newcomer who will inevitably be compared to her, with an “advantage she never had,” only to have the business crush her too.
The black dog
A pub in London is now likely to become Britain's version of the ever-busy Beachwood Café.
cassandra
An ancient Trojan priestess who was destined to be a prophet but never believed; the most famous is that of the Greek troops hidden inside the Trojan horse.
'The Bolter'
In the novels of British writer Nancy Mitford, it is a nickname given to the narrator's mother, a serial monogamist who cycles through relationships. A real-life inspiration, Lady Idina Sackville, scandalized high society in the 1920s in the United Kingdom and its colony in Kenya.
