The Subway by Chappell Roan

    The Subway by Chappell Roan was released on July 31st, 2025, over a year after she first performed it at her Governor's Ball performance in 2024.  The song tells a story of a time when Chappell unexpectedly ran into her ex, leading to a breakdown where she mourned what she and her lover could've been.

Throughout the music video, and on the album cover, Chappell has extremely long hair.  In the music video, her hair is a kind of nuisance that she has to carry around.  I believe it symbolizes how mentally draining the breakup was.  She feels so heavy all the time and feels exhausted with her life from dealing with the grief of breaking up with her girlfriend.

    Another important thing to note is the significance of the song taking place in the New York City subway, despite taking place in Los Angeles.  Compared to LA, New York City is a more dense urban city that is fast-paced and energetic.  The subway is always bustling, and everyone is always on the go.  This environment offers a visual of the feeling of feeling left behind.  Chappell feels left behind for being unable to move on from her breakup.  Similarly, the subway is often a place where you never take notice of the people around you.  Unless you know someone on the train, no one ever sticks out to you.  Chappell doesn't want to notice her ex everywhere she goes, she wants her ex to be a stranger again so that she can be "just another girl on the subway".

 Lyrics

    When it comes to the lyrics, most of them are pretty direct.  Verse 1 describes her experience of seeing her ex on the subway and nearly having a breakdown over it.  However, the pre chorus of "It's just another day, and it's not over/till it's over, oh till it's over/It's just another day, and it's not over/till it's over, it's never over" creates a kind of tragic and mournful feel to the lyrics.  She repeats to herself in the pre chorus of both verses 1 and 2 that it's just another day and that she's over the relationship/the relationship is over.  By the end of the pre chorus, though, she admits to herself that she either doesn't want their relationship to be over or that she isn't over the breakup.  She has to soothe herself to stop herself from having a break down.  She then says that she won't be over the relationship until she can see her ex as "just another girl on the subway".

    Verse 2 is more metaphorical.  The verse opens with "Made you the villain, evil for just moving on" showing how she initially hated her for moving on without her but that she now feels that she is the one who needs to move on.  She knows she needs to move on and that her ex isn't a villain, but she loved her so much that she can't simply move on.  She then says that she sees her shadow even with the lights off.  It shows that she sees small reminders of her, even if they aren't actual reminders at all; it's just that her ex is constantly on her mind.

    At the end of the verse, she says if this feeling of feeling unable to move on from her ex persists, she'll move to Saskatchewan.  Saskatchewan doesn't have asubway system, meaning that Chappell won't have a way to be reminded of her.  If she isn't able to willfully move on from her ex, she promises herself to put herself in a situation that forces her to move on.

The ending lines of the song that alternate from "She got away" to "She's got a way" show Chappell's final feelings of anguish in mourning the breakup.

"She got away" means that the ex left or that she moved on.  Chappell sings this line with anguish, feeling like she let the person that was her soulmate get away from her.

She then alternates to "She's got a way" meaning that there was something special about her that made her so charming and attractive.

By switching between the 2 lines, she gives you the full impact and despair that she felt when she was finally able to meet the right person who still left her.

Review: ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️

Overall, this song was genuinely one of my favorites of 2025.  I mean, hell, I listened to it 78 times in August alone.  It was such an impactful battle cry song about unrequited love and the feeling of being left behind while the rest of the world moves on without you.  The song felt angry at her ex but it was sympathetic at the same time, and it was such a powerful song that really moved me and made me feel the grief and anguish that the song was created from.  Absolute banger. 10/10 highly recommend.