While there are many people who wouldn’t pass up the opportunity to interpret “The Subway” as yet another “love letter” to New York—especially those who insist it’s having a new moment/resurgence in “the culture”—the lyrical content tells a larger truth about the city that always disappoints: it will build you up only to gut-punch you after experiencing something like love there. Or as close to experiencing love as one can get when they’re self- and money-obsessed (these being the prerequisites of living in NYC). This holding true perhaps more than ever as “what it takes” to stay in New York is liable to render a (non-rich) person into somebody ever more unfeeling. Such “hardening” now extending to the fact that, if one really does want to commit to remaining in the “greatest city in the world,” they must also contend with the potential natural disasters that entails.
Case in point, on the very day that Roan has chosen to release “The Subway,” August 1st, New York City is in a declared state of emergency over yet another flood that is, of course, extending heavily into various subway stations throughout the city. That’s right, the very thing Roan is, in her way, “romanticizing” also just so happens to be among the city’s greatest Achilles’ heels. The thing that repeatedly reveals itself to be the source of all pain. Including Chappell’s in this particular ballad, which possesses the overarching sound of the kind of “lesbian rock” fit for the Lilith Fair. And yes, as Roan herself said, it does have a certain “cousin to ‘Casual’” vibe as well. Possesses the same sense of yearning and regret over a love lost. Particularly a lover who blatantly didn’t value what they had the same way that Chappell did. Except that “Casual” is clearly about a West Coast love (bound to be much flightier), as evidenced not only by the L.A. beach it was filmed on, but also in the name-checking lyrics, “Two weeks and your mom invites me to her house in Long Beach/Is it casual now?” (though, of course, New Yorkers will remind that they have a Long Beach too, even though the California one is far more famous).
Perhaps in a bid to “even the scales” (no mermaid-in-“Casual” pun intended) between the two coastal cities known for being a haven to the LGBTQIA+ community that Roan counts herself as part of, she felt obliged to make her “New York version” of this track, complete with all the lovelorn and regretful feels that are more specific to NYC—just ask Roan’s fellow musician and friend, Lorde.
Indeed, like Lorde in the “What Was That” video Roan’s haunting by the specter of an ex is further punctuated by a ride on a Citi bike (inevitably passing sites that will remind her of that ex), her long hair dragging behind her and collecting various pieces of trash in it along the way. For, yes, Roan’s hair is the star of the video, in addition to being the crux of its plot, giving Rapunzel a run for her money. In point of fact, part of the reason for the lengthy amount of time it took to finally release “The Subway,” which has been gestating for over a year now, is that Roan wanted to “build the world” she thought was right for it. A world worthy of her other music videos thus far.
So it is that she commented on her Instagram, “I’m very proud of this song and what a journey she has been on. I first played it at Gov Ball when I was painted green as Lady Liberty and in the past have played a few new songs to feel them out. Obviously not knowing this really chaotic year would follow the performance, it didn’t really leave me the time to build the world the song deserved. But finally we are here. I def ripped my hair out trying to figure out the puzzle of how this song should feel musically and visually and emotionally. Luckily there are some to spare.” This being a reference to her Rapunzel-inspired look for the accompanying visual. Which is actually preferable to Roan reprising her “role” as Lady Liberty again. Though it’s true that many fans wouldn’t have minded seeing Roan more officially immortalize her emergence from an apple bong as Lady Liberty the same way she did before singing “Good Luck, Babe!” at Governor’s Ball (whereas, during her performance of “The Subway,” she donned a form-fitting, taxi-print dress).
As a matter of fact, had “The Subway” been ready for an official release prior to “Good Luck, Babe!,” Roan might have had a very different career trajectory in 2024. Because it’s not exactly as though “The Subway” is a radio-friendly hit, so much as the type of single that only an already established artist like Roan could get away with releasing. As for Dan Nigro’s (Roan’s producer and co-writer on the track, and most of her others) take on the journey of “The Subway,” he also took to Instagram to comment on its remarkable evolution as follows:
“There is so much to say about the journey of this song that I could probably do a two-hour lecture on it (and maybe one day I will) [side note: so, too, could Billie Eilish and Finneas on the making/writing of ‘Birds of a Feather’]. ‘The Subway’ was the first song we wrote after finishing The Rise and Fall during the summer of ’23… when it came time to deciding on the first single to release after the album. It was between this and ‘Good Luck, Babe!’ However the production of ‘GLB’ was much further along, so we put ‘The Subway’ off to the side for a while… Fast forward to Gov Ball last year, Kayleigh called me a few weeks before and said she wanted to play it, so I quickly put together a more complete version and sent stems to Heather Liz Baker so that the band could learn the song (this is [the] version everyone’s now heard). It never occurred to me at the time how many people would fall in love with that version and make covers and share it etc., etc. … It was really beautiful to see how many people connected with the song but [it] also started to freak us out a bit because…well…we weren’t done with it! We were still trying to figure out how it felt on record. All this to say…it took a while…but we finally made a version that we love very dearly and we really hope that you do too!”
Inevitably, it’s New Yorkers that will probably love it the most, getting off on almost anything that speaks to “their city,” even (and often especially) if it’s not exactly outright praise. No, instead, the denizens of New York take pride in “real” depictions of the town. And what’s realer than seeing an errant mass of hair on the sidewalk? Sometimes drifting like an urban tumbleweed. That’s precisely how the Amber Grace Johnson-directed video commences, with Johnson getting a real career leg up from Roan in that her most notable video up to now has been FKA Twigs’ and The Weeknd’s “Tears in the Club.”
After that mound of hair is stepped on and/or kicked aside to confirm that the video is going to be a trichophiliac’s wet dream, Johnson cuts to a long-haired Roan standing out from the huddled masses as she walks through them—looking a lot like Cousin Itt. And then, as Roan clocks another girl with the same “style” of hair as hers, only in green, she delves into the opening verse, “I saw your green hair/Beauty mark next to your mouth/There on the subway/I nearly had a breakdown.” Because, to be sure, having a breakdown on the regular as a result (whether directly or indirectly) of living in NYC is bound to happen at least once a week.
Although often tonally in the same spirit as “Casual,” the visuals of “The Subway” focus entirely on the aftermath—the emotional repercussions—of a breakup, as opposed to giving viewers a glimpse into the relationship “before the fall,” as it were. This being part of what makes the Hadley Hillel-directed “Casual” feel even more bittersweet by the crushing finale. With “The Subway,” however, all the viewer ever knows is a universe in which Roan is separate from this “presence.” Granted, a “presence” that looks very much like her doppelgänger and/or alter ego. For, as Broad City (specifically, the Alia Shawkat-guest starring episode, “Coat Check”) once taught us, lesbians can’t help but be attracted to women who look like them. And maybe even smell like them, too.
As for conjuring up the power of the olfactory senses, Roan also mentions the agony of how, “A few weeks later/Somebody wore your perfume/It almost killed me/I had to leave the room.” Which is really saying something, since it’s difficult to pinpoint scents that are actually pleasant-smelling in NYC. For the most part, it’s piss, shit, exhaust, skunk-ass weed—that sort of thing—that one tends to pick up on the most, scent-wise.
And another thing that’s easy to pick up on in NYC is the pervasiveness of word tees. A phenomenon that Roan addresses in the first scenes of the video, when one of the men in the crowd stands out for his message of choice to parade on the streets: “Dead inside but still horny.” The type of sentiment that hardly matches the rapier wit that New Yorkers of Dorothy Parker’s era once prided themselves on, but it will have to do for the New York that Roan is inhabiting. In addition to another man on the subway wearing a shirt that reads, “Praying for all you hoes.” As one should if said hoes they’re referring to are those committed to the “cause” of New York in general, but, more specifically, of falling in love there (see also: Louise [Jennifer Hudson] in the Sex and the City movie).
The tongue-in-cheek decision to incorporate/allude to the fairy tale of Rapunzel is so that Roan can decimate any such notions that love in New York is anything like a fairy tale. And one of the most spot-on representations of this is the contrast of Roan lying on top of her piles and piles of Rapunzel hair as rats start to crawl around in it. In another scene that riffs on the lack of any kind of fairy tale sheen in NY (contrary to what most 00s-era rom-coms would have people believe), Roan stands on the fire escape outside of her apartment, letting her hair fall to the ground as she looks out on the city as though hoping somehow to zero in on the ex that she lost. The ex she chases onto the subway, only to just miss her when the doors close—this undoubtedly referencing Sliding Doors (even if said movie is set in London). The “philosophy” behind which perennial non-subway rider Carrie Bradshaw (Sarah Jessica Parker) addresses in a season three episode of SATC called “The Big Time,” “wondering,” “Was every second of our lives controlled by fate? Or is life just a series of random occurrences? If I wasn’t perpetually ten minutes late, would my life be totally different?”
Roan’s just might, if she had actually gotten on the same subway as her ex to…what? Tell her she still loved her? Bitch her out for breaking her heart? A form of something in between? Who knows? Roan doesn’t make it, instead doomed to keep imagining she’s seeing that same girl who emotionally destroyed her on the subway. Yet another horror of NYC one isn’t aware of until they live there long enough.
Nor will one be aware of the glut of ads that surround them on the subway after enough time spent living there either. Roan riffs on this by including a number of tailored ads, like the one that says, “My drink is karma” (a sign that also appeared during her Grammys performance of “Pink Pony Club”), as a nod to The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess’ “My Kink Is Karma.”
As the video enters its final act, Roan’s use of hair as a manifestation of the burden she carries around with her in the form of mourning this relationship is ramped up. This time, by revealing a scene of her amidst swirling, wind-blown newspapers (another old school trope of New York, along with yellow cabs)—only it’s no big deal. Because her hair has now been cut off to fall above her shoulders (indeed, this haircut, paired with her “normie” outfit, makes this the decided Midtown version of Roan). If it were the same long length as before, however, such a weather element would be far more cumbersome.
Even so, Roan doesn’t conclude the video with the image of her shorn locks, but rather, one final image of her (and her long hair) riding the subway, looking off as though she might have caught a glimpse of the one who broke her heart. Still “counting down all of the days/‘Til you’re just another girl on the subway.” In other words, until she doesn’t do a double take at the sight of every girl who looks even vaguely like her ex.
As for the enduring “What Was That” parallel to “The Subway,” Roan, like Lorde, also finds herself in Washington Square Park for the denouement of the video. But instead of dancing in the center of a crowd of admirers in jeans and a flowing white button-front shirt with a metallic bra (or is it a bathing suit top?) underneath it, Roan swims naked in the fountain (surely, the police would shut her down for that in real life the same way they did Lorde’s video shoot), looking not unlike the very siren that broke her heart in the “Casual” video. To add insult to injury, a pair of girls are making out nearby, almost as if to, er, lord their new love over her. Yet another unique torture of NYC: for every person going through a brutal breakup, there are two more naively experiencing their honeymoon phase.
Eventually, however, even those honeymooners will come to Roan’s same conclusion, “Well, fuck this city, I’m movin’ to Saskatchewan.” In short, Roan is echoing the Billie Eilish aphorism, “I don’t relate to you, no/‘Cause I’d never treat me this shitty/You made me hate this city.” The difference is, where Eilish was referring to L.A., Roan rightly refers to its opposite in every way.
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