that it's not really a question of whether it's good or not". Some reviewers echoed Elverum's opinion that its sparse instrumentation barely constituted music. Jon Caramanica observed how the songs' intensity almost defied the label of art. Breihan thought that the album rejected conventional standards of music, a theme commonly found through other reviews. A few critics found it a difficult album to review. Jochan Embley of The Independent said that it was strange to praise an album that earnestly details someone's grieving process, while Lin scored the album but said that his rating meant "absolutely nothing". AccoladesA Crow Looked at Me appeared on multiple 2017 year-end lists. It placed first, second and third on those published by Tiny Mix Tapes, The Daily Beast and The New York Times, respectively. It ranked 15th in The Village Voices Pazz & Jop poll, which collected top-ten ballots of more than 400 critics from across the United States that year. In readers' polls conducted by Pitchfork and Stereogum, the album placed at number seven and number four, respectively. It was featured on several lists of the best albums of the 2010s decade, including a top-20 placement by Noisey. According to a survey of decade-end lists by the Seattle Metropolitan, it was the most-mentioned album by an artist from the Seattle area. Impact The album was described as "historic" by Paste's Adam Nizum, while Thomas Britt of PopMatters called it "one of the most remarkable folk albums ever produced". Both Ben Hansen of Happy Mag and Britt hold it as the peak of the Mount Eerie project, the latter going further and saying it concluded "Elverum's longtime preoccupations ... with nature and death". According to Max Savage Levenson of Bandcamp Daily, by the end of 2017, the album had been recognized as a "milestone" in Elverum's career; Tiny Mix Tapes writer, Leah B. Levinson echoed a similar sentiment. Frank Falisi of Tiny Mix Tapes cited it as one of the albums of the 2010s that "[redefined] the understanding of popular music". Both The Guardian John Robinson and Craig Jenkins of Vulture highlighted it as an example of a new personal style of songwriting. The Village Voice said that the "absoluteness of Elverum's literalism" is "one reason A Crow Looked at Me is some kind of classic". In 2017, the American rapper Danny Brown named A Crow Looked at Me as his favorite album of