Chappell Roan’s New Song ‘The Subway’ Leaves the Station

After teasing the song for about a year, “The Subway” has arrived fashionably late, but still fabulous. Chappell Roan has been performing the heartbreak ballad live since mid-2024, but is now formally introducing the song as her third single to her upcoming untitled sophomore album. True to her initial introduction to the song, where she called it “Casual’s cousin,” “Subway” echoes a similar sentiment of a heartbreak that doesn’t seem to let go. “But I’m still counting down all of the days/‘Til you’re just another girl on the subway,” Roan sings in post-chorus.

Despite the universal love for the song from her fans, Roan had been struggling with whether she wanted to release the song or not. “I’ve been banging my head against the wall with ‘The Subway,’ because… some songs just work live — certain things work live — and they don’t work in the studio,” Roan told Las Culturistas in April of this year. “For ‘The Subway’, it’s just going to feel different, and different doesn’t always mean worse…You just have to really take yourself out of it and be like, ‘This is different and that’s okay.’” Different can be good, like a new hairdo that takes up at least two seats on the subway.