By Chloe Kowalyk

(Above: Album cover for “The Subway”)

Chappell Roan pleasantly surprised her listeners with the official release of “The Subway” on July 31. 

Debuted at the Governor’s Ball Music Festival in June 2024, “The Subway” is a powerful ballad, highly anticipated for release since the song originally skyrocketed in popularity last year.

People shared clips from the set online and the sound trended on Tik Tok.

In addition to showcasing Roan’s songwriting and musical talent, “The Subway” is proof that Roan is the leading vocal talent among pop stars currently in the spotlight. 

She seamlessly jumps through her impressive vocal range, shifting between the careful, soft verses and the loud, passionate outro. 

From satisfying lower pitches to powerful high ones, no notes are left out of Roan’s capability.

Roan’s storytelling is equally as admirable as her singing is. 

“The Subway” tells the story of a person dealing with the direct aftermath of a breakup with a partner. 

Many fans online have characterized the song as the epitome of sapphic desire – the intense feeling of love and attraction a female identifying person may feel towards another female identifying person. 

Oftentimes, sapphic yearning is used to refer to a love that is not or is unable to be reciprocated. 

In “The Subway,” Roan is singing about her consistent feelings for her former lover and the intensive process of getting over that love. 

It’s evident that Roan had been completely in love with the woman she is describing in “The Subway,” as she narrates the pangs of going through the loss. 

Just seeing the woman on the train nearly drives Roan to a “breakdown.” 

Throughout the song, it becomes abundantly clear that Roan wants to get over her previous partner, but struggles to do so. 

She is always reminded of her previous partner, seeing her shadow “even with the lights off.”

Roan is pushing for the day that her partner is just another person, removed from the context of their previous relationship and emotional connection. 

She writes, “But I’m still counting down all of the days // ‘Til you’re just another girl on the subway” — hence the name of the song. 

But does a previous partner ever become just another person in the world? 

To me, the song is a paradox. It’s an endless cycle of Roan seeing her partner on her regular commute, and the feelings flooding back over and over and over again. 

Can you really get over someone if you see them daily, and are constantly reminded of what once was? 

To look at the face of someone Roan remembers all too well? 

To be reminded of her walk, her mannerisms? 

It’s possible Roan is stuck in a recurring mess of feelings. She hints at a possible escape, writing “I made a promise if in four months, this feeling ain’t gone // Well, f*** this city, I’m moving to Saskatchewan.” 

There is also significant room to interpret the ending of the song, which repeats between the words “She’s got, she’s got a way” and “And she got, she got away” (note the removal of the ‘s in the second version).

Personally, I think the first iteration of the words is Roan saying that her previous partner has “a way” of staying in Roan’s memory, at the forefront of her heart. 

She has a way of staying there, despite the lack of a continued relationship. 

The outro then shifts to Roan saying that her partner “got away,” referring to her as “the one that got away.” Roan now must live on, and continue her life without her. 

Roan’s powerhouse vocals during this part are louder, emphasizing passion and emotion that seem to come straight from the heart. 

On the same day the song was released, a music video was also released. 

The video opens with people walking through the streets of New York as a ball of her signature red hair brushes past along the pavement. 

We then see Roan walking with long, curly red hair that reaches the ground. She follows another figure with equally long, green hair, presumed to be her former partner (referred to in the song as having green hair as well). 

They begin running through a subway terminal, as the green haired person reaches the subway just before it closes and Roan is left behind as the train rides away, signifying Roan has been left behind, and her partner has moved on.

The video primarily takes place in a subway car, as Roan continuously looks for her former partner. 

In different scenes, Roan’s hair is shown at different lengths throughout the video. 

If you’re thinking of the phrase “hair holds memories,” you’ve hit the nail on the head. Roan’s long hair represents how strong the memories and feelings that she has for her former partner are. 

At one point, she gets her hair stuck in a cab door as it drives off, dragging her through the city. 

It’s as if these memories are out of her control, dragging her along an emotional journey as she tries to rid herself of these feelings. 

During another scene, her hair has garbage tangled in it as it moves down the street behind Roan as she walks. 

This is open to a plethora of interpretations, but could represent the negative feelings that come along with getting over a former lover, or a sign of how long she has been trying to rid herself of these feelings – in that the feelings have persisted for so long, that her hair is dirty and matted. 

During the outro, we see a powerful shift as Roan’s hair is suddenly short, above her shoulders, and she is singing loudly as the wind swirls around her. 

This is mixed in with other clips over Roan’s long hair, as well as a scene of her climbing a tower of green hair. 

To me, this represents the healing process following a breakup as a whole.

There are setbacks. 

Others fill you with a seemingly endless sense of dread that makes you wonder if you ever really will be OK. 

The mix of good and bad days are what make the healing process whole. Every stage of the breakup is still you. 

In true Chappell Roan fashion, the music video also features a bunch of drag artists. 

Near the end, Roan looks across the subway car as the green haired person kisses the person with the red hair. This is either a representation of the partner moving on with someone else (or maybe someone just like her) or Roan remembering herself being with her former partner. 

“The Subway” perfectly represents the confusing and painful feelings of getting over an ex-partner, and Roan does a great job of illustrating the lost feelings a person has during this time.