The Raven That Refused to Sing (And Other Stories)
Albumin synty > Albumin kirjoittaminen ja nauhoittaminen

Kappale "Luminol" esitettiin aluksi Wilsonin ja hänen yhtyeensä kanssa Grace for Drowning -kiertueen ensimmäisellä puoliskolla. Tämä kappale sai inspiraationsa katusoittajalta, joka Wilsonin mukaan oli paikallaan joka ikinen päivä:
It doesn’t matter what the weather is like; he’s always there, playing his acoustic guitar and singing these songs. Snow, rain, gale force wind – nothing will stop him from being in his spot. ... He’s the kind of guy who is so set in his routine that even death wouldn’t stop him." Wilson considers the notion "that somebody could be a ghost in life, as well as a ghost in death, somebody who’s completely ignored even in their lifetime – it hardly makes a difference; and death doesn’t make a difference, either; it doesn’t break the routine."
"Drive Home" perustui kuvittaja Hajo Muellerin ehdotukseen. Kappaleen teemaksi muodostui pariskunnan traaginen tarina, jossa onnettomuuden aiheuttama trauma saa tarinan henkilön elämän pysähtymään paikalleen:
"It is about a couple driving along in a car at night, very much in love; the guy is driving, and his partner – his wife or girlfriend or whoever she is – is in the passenger seat, and the next minute she’s gone." The ghost of the man's partner eventually returns, "saying, ‘I’m going to remind you now what happened that night.’ There was a terrible car accident, and she died, etcetera, etcetera – again, the idea of trauma leading to a missing part of this guy’s life. He can’t deal with the reality of what happened, so he blocks it out – like taking a piece of tape and editing a big chunk out of it."
Wilsonin mukaan "The Holy Drinker" käsittelee "todella hurskasta, uskonnollista ja omahyväistä tyyppiä, joka tuomitsee kaikki ympärillään olevat 'jumalattomat', kuitenkin samalla ollen itse paatunut alkoholisti". Hän myös haastaa itse Paholaisen juomakilpailuun, jossa hän on tuomittu häviämään:
"I’m thinking of TV evangelist-types – guys who are prepared to tell people that they’re living their lives wrong and that they’re missing something because they don’t believe in God or whatever it is." The man, who, despite criticising other people's lifestyles, is himself an alcoholic, unwittingly challenges the Devil to a drinking competition, with disastrous consequences: "Of course, you can’t beat the Devil at a drinking competition – you can’t beat the Devil at anything – and so he loses. ... He gets dragged to Hell."
"The Pin Drop" käsittelee "konseptia että voit elää jonkun kanssa koska se on miellyttävää ja mukavaa, ei rakkauden tai myötätunnon vuoksi." Wilsonin mielestä kappale on käytännössä laulettu vaimon näkökulmasta:
"She’s dead, she’s been thrown in the river by the husband, and she’s floating down in the river while singing this song – from beyond death, beyond the grave, as it were." The song considers "The idea... that sometimes in a relationship there can be so much tension, so much unspoken resentment and hatred, that the tiniest thing can set off a violent episode, and in this case, one that ends in tragedy. The sound of a pin dropping on a floor can be the thing that instigates the fury."
Albumin viides kappale "The Watchmaker" kuvaa kelloseppää, joka on täsmällinen ja pikkutarkka työssään, mutta ei kykene ilmaisemaan minkäänlaisia, edes äärimmäisiäkään tunnetiloja. Ennen pitkää hän päätyy murhaamaan vaimonsa, jonka kanssa on ollut yhdessä liki 50 vuotta, mutta vaimo palaa ottamaan miehen mukaansa:
"It concerns a couple who have been together for 50 years or more, purely because it was convenient and comfortable." Wilson explains that "The watchmaker ends up killing his wife and burying her under the floorboards of his workshop. But, of course, she comes back, because she’s been with him for 50 years; she’s not going to leave him now." The song concludes when "the wife comes back to take him with her, which", Wilson suggests, "is another classic ghost story, in a way."
Albumin viimeinen nimikkokappale kertoo tarinan vanhasta miehestä, joka kaipaa kauan sitten kuollutta siskoaan. Tarinassa miehen puutarhaan ilmestyy korppi, jonka hän kuvittelee olevan merkki siskostaan, joka olisi palannut elävien maailmaan hakemaan veljeään. Hän yrittää todistaa tämän itselleen saamalla korpin laulamaan, sillä hänen siskonsa tapasi laulaa tämän ollessa peloissaan:
"An old man at the end of his life who is waiting to die. He thinks back to a time in his childhood when he was incredibly close to his older sister. She was everything to him, and he was everything to her. Unfortunately, she died when they were both very young." The man becomes convinced that a raven, who visits the man's garden, is something of "a symbol or a manifestation of his sister. The thing is, his sister would sing to him whenever he was afraid or insecure, and it was a calming influence on him. In his ignorance, he decides that if he can get the raven to sing to him, it will be the final proof that this is, in fact, his sister who has come back to take him with her to the next life."