Daily Listen by Brian Brock

The Evens - The Evens part 2 (read part one below first)

…hmm - MacKaye obviously has a voice which carries conviction, which is a prime cause of his success… but anyway…

“Shelter Two”

went out route seven, stopped at samadi sweets
we stood at shelter two and listened to the trees
went to arlington hardware to buy some electrical tape
you went to tulsa and I’m going to wait
it’s all downhill from here
we keep on climbing but we never find the top
it’s all downhill from here

Attaining normality is seen as goal of being together.  Do we care about the particular actions the Evens write about, driving, getting candy, waiting at the bus stop and paying attention, buying something, waiting for the other?  Maybe not, but we would care if those were the things we remembered about ourselves.

One thing that bothers me about these lyrics is the line “we keep on climbing but we never find the top.” It doesn’t really express calm stasis like the rest of the song.  I mean, this line means it is specifically not all downhill from here. So are we to throw it away, or to conclude that the authors want to hold on to this motive contradiction as some sort of engine of living?

Structurally, the song benefits from the energy of this section.  The Evens frequently have songs full of contrasts and just odd movement in general.  It’s common for them to have an ABCA structure, which is very unpop.