Next Stop: Chappell Roan’s “The Subway”
Photo by Ragan Henderson
Just a little over a year ago, Chappell Roan stunned the crowd at New York City’s Governor’s Ball Festival in 2024 when she debuted her then-unreleased track, “The Subway.” While dressed in a campy and topical nod to NYC, as the Statue of Liberty and a yellow taxi, Roan was able to make the performance instantly iconic. Being in that audience gave me a special attachment to the song, and I, along with many other fans, have since been (perhaps impatiently) waiting for its official release. Now, after all this time, “The Subway” is finally available for streaming. And somehow, it is every bit as incredible as that first time I heard it.
Roan’s commitment to uniquely stylized and iconic expression with her work is what makes her truly stand out in today’s pop landscape- it expands her work from just music to entire world-building. Each performance, music video, costume, set, concert visual, and promo is undoubtedly her own. This is proven once again by her recent marketing for “The Subway.”
All around New York City, streetlights were decorated with flyers hinting at the single’s release, cheekily resembling the ones typically seen scattered around the city. One read, “Going through a breakup? Get bangs!” with tearaway tabs that, once removed, revealed Roan’s face. Another alerted New Yorkers about a “lost wig” with a reference image that looked a lot like Roan’s iconic long red hair. Another flyer complained about someone leaving their hair on a fire escape, directing people to a specific location where, sure enough, a red wig was dramatically draped over the railing. Passengers on the subway even ran into a comically large red wig walking on the platform or reading the newspaper in the train. Roan theatrically turned the city into a performance art piece/large-scale scavenger hunt.
Roan successfully shares a story of loss and yearning, both through her honest lyricism and dreamy yet crisp sounds in the track. She takes the audience through each stage of grief after a breakup and the triggering experience of bumping into the ex on the subway. She tells this story in a way so vivid that even if you’re in a perfectly happy relationship, you might feel like you, too, are deeply mourning that one that got away.
Roan begins by setting the scene of seeing her green-haired ex on the subway and how that, on top of experiences like being in a room that smells like her perfume, causes a near-catastrophic breakdown. She expresses how heavy the grief’s weight is on her, causing her to paint this ex as the villain, joke about fleeing the country if these feelings don’t vanish within the next four months, and eventually repeatedly stating “She’s got a way/she’s got away.”
As a huge fan of Roan’s ballads, often enjoying these slow-mid tempo songs more than her poppy, dancy, exciting ones that have taken the media by storm, this single has become a personal instant favorite in her discography. After its long-awaited release, I am truly thrilled that “The Subway” has finally pulled into the station.
