The album is themed around Jones's hometown, Hillaryville, Louisiana, which he describes in the interlude "The Place You'd Most Want to Live" as being "founded by eight slaves who received it as a form of reparations after the American Civil War".

[2] Andy Kellman of AllMusic wrote that "seemingly posed as a promise and a threat, Wait Til I Get Over is a striking and poignant deviation" and called it "a composite of live takes and intensive sonic processing and goes in a number of creative directions".

[3] Uncut felt that "the concept is implicit in the music's gospel-soul communion, the lyrics' yearning and reckoning, and the rousing, towering power of Jones' purposively nostalgic soul vocal",[7] while Classic Rock remarked that it is "simply stunning".

[5] Glide Magazine's Ryan Dillon stated that Jones "uses nuanced musicianship and unconventional song structures to achieve the colorful imagery that makes his solo debut so layered" and summarized it as "as conceptually ambitious as it is sonically".

[8] Reviewing the album for PopMatters, Peter Piatkowski opined that it is "a fabulous record that recalls masterful works by Marvin Gaye, Stevie Wonder, and Bill Withers.