Chappell Roan’s The Subway: Take a Ride on the Dark Side of New York

There is a history in music of tracks where the singer hopes to get over their ex and move on…but can’t. A popular and recent example of this theme is Gotye’s Somebody That I Used to Know, where the song is about all the power being sapped out of your ex until they are just another face in the crowd. Chappell Roan explores that theme in her latest track The Subway, which is also set in New York. The setting is interesting in that most songs about New York overly romanticise how great it is…Empire State of Mind, Welcome to New York, Englishman in New York…and so on. Roan takes a different angle on it and looks at the dark side of New York. The side that can chew you up and spit you out. So, let’s take a look at Roan’s New York track.

Musically, the track is a hazy 90s throwback to the laid back college pop of 94-98. I have said before that Roan gives me real Kate Bush vibes with her theatricality and angular instrumentation. On The Subway Roan gives me massive Sundays vibes with its hazy guitar and cozy pop. This haze lingers over the track, which is an interesting foil to Roan’s dark subject matter and also is a great compliment to her vocals. A lot of 90s music is being mined for fresh reboots, but this has mainly been punk, hip hop and R&B. I think this hazy college campus pop like The Sundays, The Cranberries, Belle and Sebastian and 10,000 Maniacs is an under utilised genre. I love what Roan did musically on this track and I hope this leads to more bands revisiting that era of pop.

Lyrically, this is not the neon gonzo Roan we are used to. This is a far more subdued and melancholy song where the main character is grappling with what to do when feeling alone in one of the biggest cities in the world. You see, love has fallen apart and now all she hopes for is for her ex to fade into the countless faces on the subway. Just a blank face that no longer has power over her or any emotional connection…but she can’t. She sees her ex everywhere to the point where Roan describes it as seeing her shadow in the dark…cool line. This is not Swift’s romantic New York with a party around the corner, but a New York where you want to hide in the subway and pray that you can drift into obscurity to avoid your ex. If Swift’s New York is a colourful bouquet, Roan’s New York is a bunch of dried roses…with sharp thorns…in the rain.

Chappell Roan continues to zig when we expect her to zag. The brought us some huge LGBTIQA+ synth anthems that took the world by storm, which was followed up by a country leaning track, which has now been followed up by a cozy 90s pop track. The one through line is that her vocal is still ethereal. There is less Kate Busy theatricality on this track and more distilled singer songwriter pop vocals. I am excited to see where Roan keeps going and this track is a strong top 20 contender for 2025.

Listen to The Subway