Cairns explained the album title to entertainnment.ie: "It's from Immanuel Kant, the (18th century German) philosopher. He said, 'from the crooked timber of humanity, no straight thing was ever made.' I found that quote indirectly from doing a little research on Samuel Beckett, because I like Samuel Beckett. We needed an album title and we didn't have anything at that point. We liked Crooked Timber but didn't know if we wanted to go with a title track. I like it though, I find [the quote] kind of life-affirming. It's almost like saying 'yeah, everyone is different but you make the most of what you're given.'"