It's a Sin (2001 Remaster)

The speaker looks back on life with deep shame and feels personally responsible for nearly everything they want to do. The refrain, “It’s a sin,” turns this feeling into a sweeping judgment: past actions, present choices, and even future places seem condemned. The verses connect this guilt to lessons about being pure, while the speaker’s confession suggests a struggle between those rules and their own desires.

“Turned over a new leaf” is an idiom meaning to try to make a fresh start. The speaker says they then “tore right through it,” suggesting that the attempt did not last. The repeated idea of being “the one to blame” shows how broadly the speaker has absorbed responsibility. At the end, the Latin prayer refers to sin in thought, word, deed, and omission—what someone does not do—echoing the song’s all-encompassing sense of guilt.

The lyrics may express religious guilt, but they also leave room for other readings: the speaker might be questioning the rules they were taught, or describing how those rules shaped their self-image. Their admission that they still do not understand keeps the conflict unresolved. The repetition can sound like a sincere confession, an accusation against moral judgment, or both at once.