months later during the summer of 2004. Recording The album ended up being recorded at Inner Ear Studios in Washington D.C. with the help of "Dischord resident engineer" Don Zientara. Wanting to emphasize the percusiveness of the music as well as to "fill out" the low-end of the duo's sound owing to a lack of bass, MacKaye chose to use a $250 Danelectro baritone guitar with flat wound strings, calling its sound "really interesting". When asked about the authorship of the material, he stated: "I think it’s safe to say that if there’s a song where one of us is sort of singing by ourselves, chances are fair that the lyrics were written by that person." Composition Style The Evens, like much of the duo's work, is more stripped down and minimal than MacKaye's work with Fugazi. Rob Theakston notes that he "provides quiet, contemplative harmonies only hinted at briefly in latter-day Fugazi material" (citing "Pink Frosty" and "I'm So Tired" as points of comparison). Matthew Murphy called the album MacKaye's most "laid-back" and "personal" work till date, noting a "disarming sweetness" in the music brought about by his "particularly appealing" vocal delivery. Many have also noted Amy Farina's "angular" & "wildly inventive" drumming and vocal harmonies, a Tiny Mix Tapes reviewer finding that the former drove most of the songs, especially on tracks such as "Around the Corner". Her vocals, displaying a "strange mix of fragility and strength", have also earned comparisons to "early-90s [...] femme-led indie outfits like Tsunami and Scrawl" as well as Mimi Parker, with her more subdued drumming on tracks such as "Sara Lee" and "Minding One's Business" casting them in "Tortoise-like post-rock hues". MacKaye's baritone guitar playing has been described as being more repetitive, textured, hypnotic and understated in comparison to Farina's drumming. Overall, the album has been described as "the love child of Things We Lost in the Fire-era Low and One Beat-era Sleater-Kinney", as well as a collection of "likably moody lo-fi sing-alongs". The sound has also been likened to "post-post-hardcore". Themes The politically-charged lyrics deal mainly with "the loss of community and the struggle to recapture it". They have also been called "some of the most straightforward and politically caustic of MacKaye's career, packing a punch equal to some of his most visceral moments in Minor Threat." The personal is political lyrics to the opening track "Shelter Two" explore the minutiae