"Lucy Doesn't Love You" and "Disappointed" were both commercially unsuccessful, while the album's third single, "Edge of the Ocean", appeared in numerous films and television programs and has since been considered the band's signature song.

After the end of their contract with Epic, and lead singer Dominique Durand's pregnancy, the New York City studio where Ivy regularly recorded music burned down.

During recording sessions, Durand, Schlesinger and fellow band member Andy Chase decided "to go one hundred percent" on one of the tracks, which would later become "Edge of the Ocean".

[4] Along with "Edge of the Ocean", the trio started writing songs that were "less atmospheric" than those on Apartment Life, but contained more "infectious melodies", which the band preferred.

[5] Long Distance opens with "Undertow", a track featuring "pastoral tones" layered with "a lifting guitar frame"; Tom Topkoff of Hybrid Magazine noted that Durand's vocals have "aged like a fine wine".

[6] The single "Disappointed", the "fast-paced" second track, consists of a "taut rhythm and slinky guitars" that "provide a sleekly sexy backdrop for Durand's wistful vocals".

"Let's Stay Inside", the album's eighth song, uses keyboard and acoustic guitar instrumentation to provide a "comforting" feeling; "bossa nova-tinged", it results in an "intimate approach".

[12] A cover of The Blow Monkeys' "Digging Your Scene" concludes the standard edition of the album, with its production sounding "natural", as if it was an original Ivy track.

[6] While Ivy did not heavily promote the album through live appearances, several tracks from Long Distance were featured in various television series and films.

"Edge of the Ocean" was used in the movies Angel Eyes, Music and Lyrics and Shallow Hal,[13][14] and the television series Grey's Anatomy and Veronica Mars.

[13] Ivy visited various record stores throughout the US and Japan to promote the album, including at Sam Goody locations and in the West Village in New York City.

[28] Jonathan Cohen of Billboard commented that "Durand's sensual vocals are beguiling as ever" and favored singles "Disappointed" and "Edge of the Ocean".

[1] A critic from Resonance magazine praised the album for "stay[ing] true to the belief that guitar pop can have cool, utopian sounds without bringing in a truckload of keyboards and sequencers".

Online's music critics declared "Lucy Doesn't Love You" a summer anthem and predicted that Long Distance would increase Ivy's popularity.

[30] In a more mixed review, a critic from SonicNet stated that "Ivy specialize[s] in nebulously oriented dream-pop: too ethereal for straight pop fans, too structured for the 4AD crowd.