“The Subway” is better on streaming because Chappell Roan shows more emotional vulnerability while also displaying her powerful vocals.
“The Subway” by Chappell Roan was released on July 31, 2025. The song was first performed live in June of 2024 at the New York Governor’s Ball Festival. Despite the media’s attachment to how the song sounded at its debut, Chappell’s recorded version is undoubtedly a stronger song.
Chappell Roan is a powerful vocalist who knows how to utilize her skills to tell a story. Her performance in the streaming version of “The Subway” is much softer, while displaying her emotional vulnerability. Roan’s heartfelt breakup song displays her grief after the loss of her lover, and the recorded version gives this narrative justice. Her slower, more controlled vocals portray her longing and desire for someone she cannot have anymore.
Roan first performed this song for an estimated crowd of 120,000, and “The Subway” quickly garnered support for its release. The streaming version was highly anticipated by fans everywhere, but when it was finally recorded, listeners were disappointed. Fans of the song agreed it was not as powerful as before, and they were confused with how Roan had made the song sound calmer than the live version.
A similar situation occurred with Chappell’s precursor song, “The Giver,” which was released on March 13, 2025. Chappell first presented this song to the public on an episode of “Saturday Night Live.” Fans got attached, anxiously waited for the release of the song on streaming, and were then disappointed when the song did not sound the same.
“You fall in love with what you hear first,” Chappell Roan said in an iHeart Radio interview, “You hear a different version and you’re just gonna hate it because it’s different.” Chappell continues, “For ‘The Subway,’ you know, it’s just gonna feel different, and different doesn’t always mean worse. Different doesn’t always mean bad. You just have to like, really take yourself out of it and be like, ‘This is different and it’s okay’.”
Despite the emotion behind the live performance, the recorded version of “The Subway” has a more developed production and backing track. Roan is able to layer her vocals to create different, dreamy sounds and portray multiple feelings in one lyric. Moreover, the streaming version of the song holds out Roan’s ending note on “she got away” much longer, which would have been difficult to perform live.
Even though it is easy to become attached to the live version of “The Subway” that everyone heard first, it is important to recognize how much love and energy went into creating the official song. Streaming the recorded version of “The Subway” on all platforms is the way to truly enjoy the song to the fullest.
“The Subway” by Chappell Roan has caught media attention ever since she played it for the first time at a Government Ball Music Festival in New York City. However, it sounded different when she released the song to streaming and that sparked controversy online about which version was better.
The live version of the song is ten times better than the released version. Chappell’s vocals and the riffs she adds show more of her skill and packs more of a punch than the released version’s dull runs.
Because “The Subway” is so emotional and has tons of underlying symbolism and stories to tell, the performances Roan gives better conveys everything she wants to. You can see the sadness in her face, hear the hurt in her voice, and it could very much bring someone in the audience to tears. She is so honest and vulnerable, but the released version loses that effect when you give it a listen.
After the song was first performed, people were absolutely begging for it to be released. If the song had stayed as a live performance only, and were to become something special between Roan and her audiences every night, it would have been smart and sweet. It would make people feel like they were connected to something special for being in the room where the song is sung, knowing it is only sung live. It also would have boosted ticket sales because people would want to hear “The Subway.”
Along with the production, and the way the song now sounds, it was also released at a weird time. “The Subway” is Chappell’s second single of 2025, released only four months after the first one. This is not usual for an artist with no album lined up in the near future. Usually, artists will drop a single, then an album announcement, but Chappell has already said her next album could take up to five years to make.
The aesthetics and all around vibes of the two differ tremendously, giving people a bit of confusion surrounding what Chappell is trying to create for her next album. “The Giver,” released on March 13, 2025, has a very fun country feel, with the use of banjos, guitars, and twangy background vocals. This is the complete opposite from “The Subway” with its dreamy pop-ballad feel.
If Chappell still wanted to release the song, things should have gone a little bit different. First of all, she should have kept the same vocals and runs that the live has because of how much better they sound with the vibe of the song. She even previously talked about how she was not going to release it because she did not know how it would sound after production. However, if she were to just do everything the same from the live version it would have been fine. She probably could have even just released the live version to streaming platforms so that she would not have to take time and record it and produce it.