first time he has written about death". The work's exploration of death has been compared to the Antlers' Hospice (2009), David Bowie's Blackstar (2016) and Sufjan Stevens's Carrie & Lowell (2015), although, as highlighted by writer Isabel Zacharias, A Crow Looked at Me focuses more on the grieving process and its mundane aspects than these albums do. Many of the lyrics reference nature. One reviewer said that "tragedy hasn't stopped [Elverum] from noticing the world; if anything, it seems to have pried his eyes open for good". Unlike in his past works, he forgoes his "general focus on nature's 'raw impermanence. Throughout, Elverum returns to motifs such as his house—in particular, the room where Castrée died—and the minutiae of his life. The lyrics are written in diary form and detail actual events and dates. Each song explores a specific period during his grieving process, and according to Elverum, are "anchored to a very specific moment". Thomas Britt of PopMatters highlighted this element, writing that the approach made real the impact of death on continuing, everyday life. The songs, with the exception of the closer "Crow"—which is addressed to the couple's daughter, whose role in the album's story is almost that of a second protagonist—refer to Castrée, although she is never directly named. Elverum said that he does not view the album as a tribute to Castrée, or about her. He believes that he would be unable to create a sufficient tribute for Castrée. At times Elverum uses dark humor. According to The New Yorker Peter Baker, the album's lyrics combine "emotional intimacy and tonal frankness to a degree rarely heard in contemporary music". The Guardian Brigid Delaney wrote that the album is more comparable to "a traditional lament" than popular pieces of music about death such as Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds' Skeleton Tree. The New York Times Jon Caramanica wrote that "songwriting seems almost too precise a term" because "the line is blurred between singing, speaking and raw emotional data dump". The music is reminiscent of his 2008 albums Dawn and Lost Wisdom; its songs avoid standard musical structures and have sparse instrumentation—individual instruments enter and leave at unpredictable times—a drum machine producing a hiss-like sound, acoustic guitar, chord changes, an absence of choruses, unorthodox verse structure, and very few melodies. The songs are short—lasting on average less than four minutes—and typically end abruptly, avoiding codas and fade