! CONTENT IS NOT ORIGINALLY BY ME !
A compilation of all Panic! At The Disco songs and their meanings based off of Genius.com with a little bit of my editing. FYI, The second album and onwards, is where pictures start to appear, the debut album is j...
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This song is considered the most popular song of P!ATD. It's also been covered by many bands, including Fall Out Boy.
Brendon Urie: We got a call from management, this is half-way through our first tour, and they're like "hey, the radio is playing five different songs from your album. You need to fucking pick a single, so we just circulate one and build from that." [...] So we had to pick a song, and one of us spoke up and was like "fuck that! We're not going to go on the radio!" And I was like "What?! There's no way in hell we're denying a chance to be played on radio. Especially if we get to pick the single." [...] We picked "I Write Sins" [...] and the first time I heard it on the radio it was on KROQ. I was in a friend's car at the time driving on Santa Monica Boulevard [...] I didn't get it at first, because I heard it and I was like "that sounds familiar. Oh, Shit!" I pulled the window down and was like "this is me! This is me, California!
This song paints a wedding scene with an unfaithful bride – and everyone knows it! The bridesmaid strikes up a conversation with the waiter , where even he, an employee, has caught wind of the bride's infidelity. The speaker is not fond of his lover's actions, but decides to take the high road and not stir too much trouble. There can a bright side to anything – like not having to deal with a failed marriage !
One of the primary instruments used in this song is the accordion. Guitarist Ryan Ross loves the accordion and is a big fan of movie soundtracks that use it like "Amélie" and "Nightmare Before Christmas". There's also a harpsichord, which plays the opening notes.
Brendon Urie: I wrote this song six months after I had joined the band, as the guitar player ... temporarily. They needed me to play a couple of shows and I said "of course," not thinking it would go anywhere.
Then we played a show at my church. We played two songs. We had to dress up. I told them, "Listen, there is a dress code and a curfew. So we only get to play two songs and you have to wear a nice shirt, slacks, tie." After that, we were like, "Hey, we should dress up like this all the time."
Oh, well imagine As I'm pacing the pews in a church corridor
Brendon Urie: I grew up in a very, very strictly religious household. I grew up Mormon. Religious guilt has been a big part of my life. I will never get rid of it. Even now, I am not religious in any way, but the judgment that goes on is crazy.
When I was 16 years old, I sat my parents down and laid out what I had been doing the previous two years. I was like, "Listen, I have been having casual sex, I have been selling drugs to my friends and their parents, I have been sneaking out of the house every night." Initially my parents were just freaked out as hell; my siblings thought it was hilarious.
And I can't help but to hearNo, I can't help but to hear an exchanging of wordsWhat a beautiful weddingWhat a beautiful wedding, says a bridesmaid to a waiter
In these first lines, Brendon sets the wedding scene, building up the conversation with upbeat repetition until the truth of the bride's infidelity is revealed. As the official music video reveals, the guests of the wedding are bored, with their eyes painted on them to feign being awake. They all know the bride is unfaithful, so they treat the wedding as a joke, hence why they resemble clowns. The bridesmaid says a generic statement to ease the tension of the joke of a wedding, which triggers the series of events to take place.
And, yes, but what a shame What a shame the poor groom's bride is a whore
Brendon Urie: The lyrics are about infidelity, the sins that I felt were being committed by my friends. A sin is something you commit and a tragedy is the person who has a sin committed against them. You can be powerless until you make your voice heard.
At that time betrayal was huge. I had this friend, Eric—we were really good friends and he knew I was really into this girl and she and I had been talking for a while. I was smitten over this girl. And I was slow at making a move because I was just so nervous. Next thing I heard: they were fucking. And that just broke my heart.
I chime in with a Haven't you ever heard of closing a goddamn door?
This song is about an unfaithful bride whom everyone seems to know is cheating on the groom. Brendon, as the groom's conscience, is disgusted and tempted to demand if his bride has any sense of mannerism, as she was so obvious in her pursual of other men (not "closing the goddamn door"). The "door" could also refer to the bride's legs, as she opened her legs for other men.
This could also be directed to the bridesmaid and waiter discussing her affairs so publicly. The groom prefers willful ignorance over the reality of the strained relationship, so he tells them to not discuss it within earshot.
Contrary to his conscience, though, the groom has chosen to remain calm and collected. Brendon does not believe that the groom should be handling the situation so nonchalantly, explaining the possible play on words of "poise and rationality / poison rationality".
Brendon Urie: When we wrote that [lyric], Ryan [Ross] wrote most of the lyrics on the first album. And that was about that time when his Dad walked in on him and his girlfriend and he said that to Ryan, like verbatim. He said, 'Haven't you ever heard of closing the goddamn door?' Then he shut it, and yeah that was where that came from.
No, it's much better to face these kinds of things with a sense of poise and rationality
Facing a situation with "poise and rationality," would be to handle it in an elegant way. A natural reaction would be to lash out at his lover, but instead he chooses to be more graceful. Writing a song is likely a lot better than doing something regretful.
Stretching out the words "poise and" makes it sound surprisingly similar to the word "poison." This is likely intentional, as facing your fiancee's infidelity on your wedding day with "poise and rationality" is difficult at best and unhealthy at worst. "Poisoned rationality."
The word "again" could suggest that this bride could have cheated on the groom another time in the relationship, therefore he's going to have have to act with a sense of poise and rationality "again".
Oh, well in fact Well I'll look at it this way I mean, technically, our marriage is saved Well this calls for a toast So pour the champagne
The groom is saying "Well, since she's going to be sleeping with other guys, might as well call off the wedding," therefore saving the marriage from falling apart before it has even begun.
The guests at a wedding, particularly the newlyweds' parents, the maid of honor, and the best man, traditionally give a toast to honor the couple after the ceremony. Those giving toasts typically wish for happiness and good luck for the newlyweds while also reflecting on their past. This emphasizes the idea that revealing the bride had an overall positive impact, as the couple wouldn't have to go through an emotional and potentially expensive divorce.
