Drawing the Target Around the Arrow differs from Polachek's earlier work in that it consists solely of
minimal instrumental tracks. Polachek crafted the album using raw
sine waves, as she had been growing bored of how "genre-specific" music had become and wanted to strip it down to its basic parts. She was also drawn to the idea of creating "useful" music to wake up or do work to. The album's title comes from 18th century Jewish Lithuanian preacher
Dubno maggid, in explaining how he comes up with his fables. As Polachek summarized, "It's about honoring your impulses and working with what you have in front of you." ==Critical reception==