[2] The lyrics, penned by Liddiard (except This Time co-written with former band member James McCann) deal with issues such as death, depression and alcoholism in its depiction of Australian working class life.
Those things were very shocking and Western Australia was full of that kind of stuff.The deaths of his mother & former girlfriend also had a major impact on the album (particularly on "Shark Fin Blues").
Considering the resultant "white hot rage" on their debut album Here Come the Lies to be a dead end, he consciously decided to make Wait Long more melodic & hence accessible to a larger number of listeners.
[13] The album "employ[s] highs and lows, and lights and shades, to take [the listener] from introspective moody blues to pumped up rock and roll jams.
[5] It has been called "a blistering amalgamation of the down-under psych garage of the Scientists, the sunburned songbook of Nick Cave, and the rough-hewn yelping of Jon Spencer.
"[14] The music has also been described as having "the boundless cohesion and energy of X or the Gun Club [...] and, of course, the Birthday Party (albeit with less all-over-the-place percussion, horns, and avant tendencies).
"[3] The title of the album comes from a expression of uncertain origin, referenced in works by James Clavell[15] and Umberto Eco,[16] possibly a mistranslation of Confucius,[17][18] frequently misattributed[19][20] to Sun Tzu: "If you wait by the river long enough, the bodies of your enemies will float by".
During an extensive six-month tour encompassing Europe and the United States, All Tomorrow's Parties issued Wait Long by the River and the Bodies of Your Enemies Will Float By outside of Australia, towards the end of 2005.
"[14] Thom Jurek of AllMusic wrote that "humor and pathos, nihilism and the hope for redemption fight to the death inside Liddiard's voice as his mates [...] carry him back and forth from the sheer pit of darkness up to an Earth that's been scorched, so he can laugh and wail with grief in fits and starts.
"[13] Derek Cooper of Plan B wrote that the "red raw howling angst" of tracks like "Shark Fin Blues" and "You Really Don't Care" reaches "heights last scaled on Dylan's bitter 'Rolling Thunder Revue' tour back in 75.
A year after its release, Thom Jurek of Allmusic noted that the album had "set the American underground on fire" & "pushed critics to the brink of superlatives in order to describe" its songs.
"[37] In 2018, Greil Marcus wrote that the band's performances on this album and its follow up were "as fierce [...] as I’ve ever seen", despite seeming "austere" in comparison to Liddiard's later work with Tropical Fuck Storm.
[7] In a 2011 poll organized by Triple J in which "some of the country's top musicians and industry experts [were asked of] their favourite Australian albums of all time", Wait Long was voted #24 out of 100 entries.