From the album HOW TO QUIT SMOKING
This is a song about two people who can't leave each other but also can't stop performing their own suffering. Dominic frames himself as literally imprisoned, Jorjiana declares her independence in every possible way, and both admissions land in the exact same place: they're still picking up the phone. The symmetry of the chorus makes lying and crying feel like the same trap, not opposite problems.
My back knows the wall like the other side of my palm / My wrists know these cuffs don't come off and these doors lock from the hall
Dominic builds a prison metaphor so specific it feels literal, but the line that follows reveals he's writing this voluntarily, 'still mentally with you for real.' The cuffs aren't real. He's choosing the cell.
I see myself in the video different than how I did in the mirror / I see myself in the video? In the mirror?
The repetition with question marks is him realizing he doesn't know which version of himself is real anymore. He's performing his own breakdown and then watching it back, unsure if either image counts as the truth.
I-N-D-E-P-E-N-D-E-N-T as fuck / Know my momma gon' hear this song, mom, I'm sorry, I had to cuss
She spells out her independence like a mantra, then immediately apologizes to her mom for the language. It's the kind of thing someone says when they're trying to convince themselves, not you.
But I'm psycho, if you call I'll still pick up
After an entire verse of cutting him off and suing for defamation, this lands as the only honest line. Everything before it was rehearsal. This is the actual ending.
You say you never lie but you lie, don't you? Yeah / Say I never cry, but I cry for you, yeah
The mirrored accusations make the lying and the crying feel equivalent, like two halves of the same locked routine. Neither person is the villain here. They're both just stuck performing their roles until someone finally hangs up.
The song never names what the lies actually are or what the relationship was, which might be the point. It's not about the specifics. It's about two people who have memorized their breakup script so well they can't tell if they're still in it or just performing the aftermath. The City of Steel isn't Pittsburgh. It's wherever you go when you can't leave but also can't admit you're staying.
Dominic Fike & Jorjiana's "CITY OF STEEL" depicts two people trapped in a cycle where they can't leave each other despite performing opposite versions of their pain, in Scalpel's line-by-line reading. Dominic positions himself as imprisoned while Jorjiana asserts independence, yet both end up returning to each other by picking up the phone. The chorus structure collapses lying and crying into a single inescapable trap, suggesting their contradictory stances lead to the same outcome.
"CITY OF STEEL" by Dominic Fike & Jorjiana explores he built his own prison, she can't declare independence without proving she still cares, lying and crying are the same thing here, and nobody trusts their own version of events. The central thread is he built his own prison: Dominic describes confinement in physical detail but admits he's choosing to stay mentally present with someone who isn't there, turning emotional attachment into literal captivity language. These themes come from Scalpel's line-by-line analysis of the lyrics.
"CITY OF STEEL" by Dominic Fike & Jorjiana was released on October 30, 2026 on the album "HOW TO QUIT SMOKING". Scalpel's analysis covers the full lyrics of the 2026 release.
Scalpel's line-by-line analysis of "CITY OF STEEL" by Dominic Fike & Jorjiana lands here: The song never names what the lies actually are or what the relationship was, which might be the point. It's not about the specifics.