After introducing the song in a live setting last year as she dominated the summer festival circuit, Chappell Roan is returning today with a studio version of her track “The Subway.” This marks her first new single since dropping “The Giver” back in March, which was also produced by and co-written with Dan Nigro.
The cut initially came together during introspective walks around NYC, with the city’s transit system seemingly what sparked the idea for the simmering heartbreak ballad. “The cliche of ‘the girl that got away’ barely scratches the surface for me with this song,” Roan shared. “I wrote it as I was stumbling around New York with a broken heart and I kept envisioning us on every street, fire escape, coffee shop, park and yes…the subway.”
The track dropped with an expectedly dramatic music video directed by Amber Grace Johnson that sees the artist hopping on a Citi Bike, being dragged down the street by a taxi, and, of course, fantasizing on the MTA, in addition to other, less transit-themed yet equally surreal sequences. Check it out below, along with a poster for Roan’s recently announced set of pop-up dates.
