Claim: Now Only has several songs that incorporate multiple tempo and instrument changes, and one of the songs, "Distortion" deals with the ideas of memory and mortality, and is a reflection on the death of Phil Elverum's wife Genevieve Castree who died of pancreatic cancer in 2016.
Evidence: The song along with others on the album incorporates multiple tempo and instrument changes such as the transition from guitar chords to melodic riffs played on a classical guitar. The second track "Distortion", which has been described as an 11-minute epic, deals with the ideas of memory and mortality. Like the preceding Mount Eerie album A Crow Looked at Me, Now Only is an extended reflection on the death of Elverum's wife, cartoonist and musician Geneviève Castrée. She was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in 2015, shortly after the birth of her and Elverum's only child. She died on July 9, 2016.