Olivia Rodrigo knows love isn't the cure | Opinion

From an unforgiving economy that makes even the cost of a mere crush unaffordable to dating app fatigue and general risk aversion, Generation Z (those born between 1997 and 2012) doesn't see love as being worth the investment. It's another contributor to a culture riddled with loneliness and isolation.

But what's to say of the brave few who still believe in love? As singer-songwriter Olivia Rodrigo puts it: "They say modern love's a cruel endeavor/ And to that I say, 'f--k it, whatever."

With diaristic, emotive songwriting, Rodrigo has soundtracked the lives of many hopeless romantics. Her massively successful debut single "Drivers License" chronicled the world-crushing feeling of first heartbreak. Her debut album "Sour" ruminated on the self-doubt, confusion, jealousy and petty anger that follows. Those emotions hardened into angsty disillusionment on her sophomore project "Guts," a natural progression for a girl who is no longer completely deregulated by the trials of girlhood but sees them as dazzling spectacles to rock out to.

Her latest album, "You Seem Pretty Sad for a Girl So in Love," masterfully showcases even more growth as Rodrigo enters her early 20s. Sonically, she's traded pop punk for alt rock and new wave influences. Lyrically, her pen is sharpened – rather impressively – with the maturity found in early adulthood.

Less disillusioned, more grounded, yet just as vulnerable.

Those too jaded to give love a try and those who do and fail both reach a similar resolution as Rodrigo finds on "You Seem Pretty Sad for a Girl So in Love" – that love, or the idea of it, can be more of an albatross than a white horse.

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Love's other edge doesn't reveal itself all at once

Dreamy lead single "Drop Dead" captures that feeling of early limerence, where initial attraction subsumes and aestheticizes a crush's most innocuous actions, like drinking a beer or waiting in line for the bathroom. Only a yearning heart can see the latter as beautiful as an "angel on the walls of Versailles."

It's that same yearning that makes you a bit loony when a lover leaves (a The Strokes-ian "Maggots for Brains") or turns you into a "petty b---h" at any perceived threat, as chronicled in the raunchy, raucous highlight "My Way."

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The idyllic ideations continue on standout pop rock track "U + Me = <3." Despite her friends warning her to take it slow, she's all in on this guy. She sings of marking her territory on his leather seats ("carve our names into the car seat leather") and phone calls so healing she can't imagine falling for anyone else. Like most tracks across the album, "U + Me = <3" goes down easy with an infectious set of memorable melodies.

Eventually, feelings of doubt creep in. "Purple" belies a sense of contentment. Behind its hazy production and sublime vocal harmonies lies subtly heartbreaking realizations of the realities of partnership: fights over friends, questions of codependency and dreams deferred for the sake of each other.

Olivia Rodrigo has officially kickstarted her newest era. The "Good 4 U" singer, who is no stranger to turning a red carpet into her own runway, recently unveiled her highly anticipated third album. Titled "You Seem Pretty Sad For a Girl So in Love," the album will officially be releasing on June 12, 2026, and marks a new (pinker!) chapter for Rodrigo following the success of her first two albums "Sour" and "Guts."From her iconic performances to her standout red carpet looks, here's a look at Olivia Rodrigo's career through the years starting with her recent appearance at the Chloe fall/winter 2026-2027 show in Paris.

Rodrigo attends the Vanity Fair Oscar Party at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art in Los Angeles on March 15, 2026.

Feist and Rodrigo perform onstage during the 2025 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony at Peacock Theater on Nov. 8, 2025, in Los Angeles.

Rodrigo performs during the American Express Platinum Card x Olivia Rodrigo Concert at Park Avenue Armory on Oct. 23, 2025, in New York City. The singer-songwriter followed her 102-show, arena-filling Guts world tour with the intimate "secret" concert.

Olivia Rodrigo's new era begins! See her career, from breakout artist to Grammy winner

Love can't cure what we're meant to heal ourselves

Under patriarchy, women and girls are taught that matrimony should be their ultimate goal. This standard causes women and girls to center their lives around men and romantic love, from the masochistic, boys-will-be-boys capitulation exhibited by those locked in "Boyfriendland" to those who see codependency and anxious attachment as the only healthy approaches to relationships.

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With "The Cure," this album's resounding thesis, Rodrigo finds her hard-won answer.

The verses are marred with Rodrigo's tendency to self-sabotage in relationships. "Used to play a game in my head/ When I'd date a guy/ Tally up the girls that he f-----d/ 'Til I start to cry," she sings over quietly intense guitar strums.

Taking sonic inspiration from the namesake band, the song crescendos into a chorus that offers a stark revelation: A head full of poison, a heart full of doubt and a bloodstream full of toxins won't be cured by someone else's love – some of our toughest internal battles are ours alone to fight.

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This introspection manifests in the stunning folk ballad "Begged," in which Rodrigo questions whether her "endless well of needs" was met only because she willed it so.

Still, regardless of how painful and unruly romantic love can be, shunning it completely isn't the answer – nor is relying on it like a prescription. "Expectations," a song meant to be sung bouncing around your bedroom using a hairbrush as a microphone, won't settle for less the next go around ("gave my heart with zero stipulations/ Now I take careful considеration"). Though saddened, she continues this sentiment on the reflective album closer, "Cigarette Smoke."

Love is everywhere: in our families, our friends, our communities and, most important of all, within ourselves. Perhaps once we find love intrinsically, we'll be able to find it in a partner without positing it as the cure it was never meant to be.

Kofi Mframa is a columnist and digital producer for USA TODAY and the USA TODAY Network.

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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Olivia Rodrigo tackles modern love with new album | Opinion