magazine. Elverum's Le Guess Who? performance was selected as one of the best by Consequence of Sound. NPR selected the concert at Hollywood Forever Cemetery as an "essential" gig from the first half of 2017. Elverum experienced nightmares in the lead up to touring the songs live until he gained confidence from the early positive reactions of friends and family. He typically sang in a detached, vulnerable manner, and on occasion apologized for becoming visibly emotional. He viewed the events as "re-enacting a trauma and charging people money for it" and criticized the sense of voyeurism the audience partook in, although he said that audiences helped him overcome his fear of performing. He admitted that he would probably approach a similar performance by another artist in terms of being "hard to look away from a car accident". Reception A Crow Looked at Me received widespread critical acclaim, with Elverum receiving more attention from reviewers than before and earning some of the best reviews of his career. It was one of the most critically acclaimed albums of 2017 and Elverum's best selling to date. Elverum found the album's positive reception as reaffirming but "strange and absurd". He felt uneasy about his lyrics being so public, and later said: "I scream, 'Death is real,' and you clap". Many reviewers were impressed by the album's direct sentiment and emotional lyrics. Critic Zack Fenech complimented the album's ability to make listeners "reflect on their own relationships and mortality", Tom Breihan of Stereogum ended his reviews by praising the impact the album had on him. Tiny Mix Tapes' writer Jessie Rovinelli said that the album "recommitted me to the world as it is, reminded me of the danger of grand statements and the sad comfort in uncertainty". Spencer Kornhaber of The Spinoff saw the album's appeal as being that it allows listeners to express and articulate grief—Tom Faber of The Guardian found it did. Andy O'Connor, in an article for Spin, noted that the album was widely praised and "identified with" because of the perceived ubiquity of grief in the late 2010s. Critics differed in their appraisal of the album's instrumentation, production and aesthetic. Fenech found that the approach "[translated] and [captured] feelings words simply can't", and Fink applauded the lo-fi approach. Marvin Lin of Tiny Mix Tapes and The Guardian'''s Michael Hann gave ambivalent opinions; Hann said the style was "functional" and "sufficiently mannered