Interpretation
„It's a Sin“ by
Pet Shop Boys is a song that addresses the feelings of guilt and remorse that can be caused by religious and moral upbringing.
The first verse and the chorus express a constant sense of shame and guilt that the singer feels about his life. „When I look back upon my life, It's always with a sense of shame, I've always been the one to blame“ – the singer looks back on his life with shame and always feels guilty.
The chorus „It's a sin, Everything I've ever done, Everything I ever do, Every place I've ever been, Everywhere I'm going to“ repeats the idea that everything the singer does or has done is somehow sinful.
In the second verse „At school they taught me how to be, So pure in thought and word and deed, They didn't quite succeed“ the singer talks about his upbringing, which aimed to make him pure in thought, word, and deed. But this upbringing didn't succeed, which reinforces the feeling of guilt and shame.
The lines „Father, forgive me, I tried not to do it, Turned over a new leaf, then tore right through it“ show the singer's efforts to lead a 'good' life and change, but also show his failure to do so.
At the end of the song, the singer repeats „It's a sin“. This repetition can be seen as a critique of the strict moral and religious upbringing that often generates a feeling of guilt and shame that is hard to overcome.
The Latin words at the end of the song are part of the Catholic confession and translate to „I confess to almighty God and to you, my brothers and sisters, that I have greatly sinned in my thoughts and in my words, in what I have done and in what I have failed to do, through my fault, through my fault, through my most grievous fault“. This reinforces the theme of the song - the constant feeling of guilt and remorse caused by religious upbringing.