‘Can't Love You Anymore’ by Thomas Rhett - Lyrics & Meaning

Slotting in at No. 2 on the tracklist for About a Woman, Thomas Rhett's seventh studio album, ‘Can't Love You Anymore’ aligns seamlessly with the rose-tinted, adoring ambience of the project.

It finds the Georgia again serenading his wife, Lauren, with an array of compliments and praise, stressing that he couldn't possibly love her any more than he does right now.

When reading the title, it might seem like a heartbreak track, with the protagonist confessing he doesn't love his partner anymore - but, thankfully, Thomas Rhett reprises his signature role as a romantic and flips the key lyric to mean the exact opposite.

Opening with a pining electric guitar and a funky, uptempo drum pattern, ‘Can't Love You Anymore’ struts along a soulful, sashaying instrumental. Thomas Rhett's warm, charismatic delivery combines with the breezy composition to give this track the feel of a pop-country classic. The backing vocals inject an extra bolt of energy into the post-chorus, elevating ‘Can't Love You Anymore’ into a dance-ready hit.

“Baby, I can’t love you anymore

‘Cause every piece of me, oh me

Is already yours, yes, it is”

Thomas Rhett continues the message of the previous song on the tracklist, ‘Fool’, by underlining to his wife, Lauren, that every single part of him is devoted to her and her alone.

The opening lyric, ‘Baby, I can't love you anymore’, is deliberately inserted as the first line to make the listener think for a split second that he's about to call for a break up.

But remember, this is Thomas Rhett, and no-one writes a love-song that is equal parts charm and wit as well as the ‘Beautiful As You’ hitmaker. As a result, unsurprisingly, Rhett transforms the meaning of the titular line into an unconditional tribute to Lauren, underlining how he simply can't love her more than he does today.

“She rolled her eyes and put her arms around me

She said, “Tell me what it is you love about me”

I love the way you dance

I love the way you talk

I love it when you’re tipsy and you’re spillin’ out your heart

I love the way that dress slides across the floor

And even if I tried, can’t love you anymore”

Thomas Rhett recalls how Lauren teasingly rolls her eyes at him, before asking him to be more specific about why he loves her so much. He wastes no time in reeling off a list of his wife's traits and tendencies that make his heart melt, ranging from simply how she talks to the way that she gets endearingly honest after drinking alcohol.

“I hate it when we fight

I hate it when you’re gone

I’d hate to take another breath without you on my arm

I’ve spent up all the love my heart can afford

I’m sorry but it’s true, can’t love you anymore

Than I already do

(Can’t love, can’t love)

I can’t love you anymore

(Can’t love, can’t love)”

TR attacks his second verse from a different angle, and instead of adding more things he loves about Lauren Akins, he offers up a flurry of situations he doesn't enjoy. These include the times when they fight or have to spend a few nights apart if he's on tour.

“Look at us on a Tuesday night

Lickin’ salt and suckin’ on lime

Like you never left ADPI®

My my my, my my my

Shake it baby

Tip it over

Push that hair up off your shoulder

Pull your boy a little closer”

Even though they've been married for over a decade, Thomas Rhett and Lauren make a point of showing across social media how they're retained their sense of playfulness and youthfulness. TR describes how they're doing tequila shots with salt and lime on a random Tuesday night, before joking that Lauren is acting as though she never left the party-hard days of her University of Tennessee sorority, Alpha Delta Pi. He encourages her to keep embracing the joy and celebratory ambience of the night, as they toast the powerful love they still feel for one another.

Thomas Rhett hasn't touched on the creation of ‘Can't Love You Anymore’ in depth just yet, but in an interview with Holler in the lead-up to releasing his 2024 album, the 2020 CMA Entertainer of the Year revealed how his outlook when crafting About a Woman was notably different compared to that of his previous two albums.

TR explained, “When I think of this project, I keep thinking of the word ‘Freedom’. Not to dive super deep here, but...2019 was the last year that I felt that sort of freedom of just, ‘Man, whatever I'm feeling, I'm just gonna say, whatever feels good I'm just gonna write, whatever sounds good, that's what gonna go on the record’. I think COVID did a number on all of us, but for me, I think being so secluded and not being able to get that instant feedback from fans by constantly being on the road - I love playing new songs on the road to kind of feel, “Is this song vibing, is this song not vibing”. And so I made a couple of records that I'm for sure proud of, but I think those records were...‘Fear’ is not the right word either, but they were made from not a free place, if that makes any sense”.

Thomas Rhett inspiringly highlighted how he ensured joy was at the heart of About a Woman, “So somewhere around the beginning of last year, I started having conversations with the guy who actually produced this whole next record, Julian Bunetta, who I've been friends with forever and he produced all the One Direction stuff, just recently produced the whole Sabrina Carpenter record, and produced the whole new Teddy Swims project, so he's had this big resurgence. He looked at me and was like, ’Man, it'd been six years I had a hit, and I just kept coming back and kept coming back and kept coming back, because I love it’. And he was like, ‘How much do you love this?’ That was a very pivotal question for me, because I was like, ‘Man, I love it more than most things in the world. Minus my family, music is what I live and breathe’. He was like, ‘Well, lets write from that part, rather than from the part of, ‘Well what if and what if and what if’”.

“Baby, I can’t love you anymore

‘Cause every piece of me, oh me

Is already yours, yes, it is

-

She rolled her eyes and put her arms around me

She said, “Tell me what it is you love about me”

-

I love the way you dance

I love the way you talk

I love it when you’re tipsy and you’re spillin’ out your heart

I love the way that dress slides across the floor

And even if I tried, can’t love you anymore

-

I hate it when we fight

I hate it when you’re gone

I’d hate to take another breath without you on my arm

I’ve spent up all the love my heart can afford

I’m sorry but it’s true, can’t love you anymore

Than I already do

(Can’t love, can’t love)

I can’t love you anymore

(Can’t love, can’t love)

-

Look at us on a Tuesday night

Lickin’ salt and suckin’ on lime

Like you never left ADPI®

My my my, my my my

Shake it baby

Tip it over

Push that hair up off your shoulder

Pull your boy a little closer

-

I love the way you dance

I love the way you talk

I love it when you’re tipsy and you’re spillin’ out your heart or

I love the way that dress slides across the floor

And even if I tried, can’t love you anymore

-

I hate it when we fight

I hate it when you’re gone

I’d hate to take another breath without you on my arm

I’ve spent up all the love my heart can afford

I’m sorry but it’s true, can’t love you anymore

Than I already do

(Can’t love, can’t love)

I can’t love you anymore

(Can’t love, can’t love)

Than I already do

-

She rolled her eyes and put her arms around me

She said, “Tell me what it is you love about me”

-

I love it when you dance

I love it when you talk

I love it when you’re tipsy and you’re spillin’ out your heart

I love the way that dress slides across the floor

And even if I try, can’t love you anymore

-

I hate it when we fight

I hate it when you’re gone

I hate to take another breath without you on my arm

I spend up all the love my heart can afford

I’m sorry but it’s true, can’t love you anymore

-

Than I already do

(Can’t love, can’t love)

I can’t love you anymore

(Can’t love, can’t love)

Than I already do

-

Yeah, Ooo

(Can’t love, can’t love)

Can’t love, Can’t love

Than I already do

Can’t love you anymore”

For more on Thomas Rhett, see below: