Chappell Roan has been keeping fans fed all year. But don’t expect a new album anytime soon.
On Friday, August 1, Roan finally dropped “The Subway,” a fan favorite track that she’s been performing live over the past year. This comes just months after she released her country-inspired single, “The Giver.” While this may be indicative of an album rollout, Roan suggested that fans not get their hopes up.
Speaking to Vogue while on the set of the video for “The Subway,” the Grammy-winner revealed that she doesn’t have a full body of work materialized for her sophomore album.
“There is no album,” Roan said. “There is no collection of songs.”
Roan released her debut album The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess back in 2023. The album contained several hits, including “Red Wine Supernova,” “Hot to Go,” and “Pink Pony Club,” — the latter originally released in April 2020.
“It took me five years to write the first one, and it’s probably going to take at least five to write the next,” Roan said. “I’m not that type of writer that can pump it out.”
She continued, saying she doesn’t believe she can make “good music whenever I force myself to do anything.”
Since its proper release, “The Subway” has reached No. 1 on the iTunes chart. Despite its success and the high anticipation for the song, Roan almost didn’t put it out.
In an interview on the Las Culturistas podcast back in April, she revealed that she had been struggling to get the studio version of “The Subway” just right.
“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,” she said at the time.
Though it may be quite some time before Roan releases her second album, “The Subway” has shown us that she is always worth the wait.
