Songfacts®:

• This song finds sisters Klara and Johanna Söderberg's crooning melancholy lyrics about searching for an identity amid fleeting romance. The track was inspired by a difficult time in Los Angeles, where they spent five weeks in spring 2017 penning songs for their fourth studio album. The pair discovered the city of angels is not all just fun in the sun. They said:
  
  "It was a tough time for the both of us. We were in this beautiful sunny place, but mostly felt sad and lonely. 'It's A Shame' is a song about the emptiness and desperation you feel after a relationship has come to an end. How you will go to great lengths just to numb the pain and feel less lonely."
• The song was written by the First Aid Kit pair in the car as they traveled back to their rental house in LA after spending a beautiful day at El Matador beach.
• Musically this was inspired by a classic album. The sisters told Consequence of Sound: "We were listening a lot to Fleetwood Mac's Rumours when recording this song in the studio. There's a bouncy quality to that record that we love. We wanted the song to feel alive and upbeat, in stark contrast to the lyrical content."
• The melancholy lyrical content is framed by an upbeat arrangement. Klara told The Sun: "We've always been interested in sad lyrics sung in a beautiful way. You find that contrast a lot in country music, which can be very dark. It's often about life stories and people's suffering but it's beautifully played and I love that."
  
  Johanna added that she feels this song captures the miserable/enjoyable dynamic perfectly. "Weirdly, it makes me happy to sing that song even though it's so sad in so many ways," she said. "There's such desperation and loneliness and I remember what that was like but, at the same time, I'm thinking, 'I know it's a shame but that's the way it is and hey, what can I do about it?"