“Purple” was originally written as a sweet love song before Olivia Rodrigo changed it to have a darker theme.
The song appears as the seventh track on You Seem Pretty Sad for a Girl So in Love and closes the “Girl So in Love” section. Its position gives it a transitional role: it remains within the album’s romantic opening half, but its darker revision foreshadows the emotional unease of the second section.
This development illustrates how Rodrigo and Dan Nigro shaped the album during its writing process. Rodrigo described the record as exploring adult romantic love in real time, and she later revisited some songs to make them more sad and creepy. “Purple” is a clear example of that tonal adjustment.
The song should not be confused with “The Cure,” which begins the “You Seem Pretty Sad” section and uses medicinal imagery for emotional struggle. “Purple” belongs to the first section but carries a noticeably darker edge.