Wait Long by the River and the Bodies of Your Enemies Will Float By

Wait Long By the River and the Bodies of Your Enemies Will Float By
Studio album by The Drones
Released 18 April 2005
Recorded Atlantis Studios - 2004
Genre Punk blues, garage rock, noise rock
Label In-Fidelity (Australia)
ATP Records (UK/Europe)
Producer Locki Lockwood
Gareth Liddiard
The Drones chronology
Here Come the Lies
(2002)Here Come the Lies2002		 Wait Long By the River and the Bodies of Your Enemies Will Float By
(2005)		 The Miller's Daughter
(2005)The Miller's Daughter2005

Wait Long by the River and the Bodies of Your Enemies Will Float By is the second album released by the Drones, a band formed in Perth and based in Melbourne.

Content

The album has been described as "tight, working-class rock [...] vocal-shredding songs crammed with drunkenness, night sweats, and suicide notes." [1] In relation to their debut Here Come the Lies, the album has been called "a furthering of that vision and a slight turn into darker territory, with all self-penned material" (the debut was "equally split between covers and originals").[2] 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. It centres on the sharp blues-rock guitars and the vocal harmonies of lead singer Gareth Liddiard and his compadres".[3] 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."[4] The music was also said to have "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)."[5]

Promotion & Release

Triple J put the album tracks, "Shark Fin Blues" and "Baby²", on medium rotation. 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.[6][7]

Reception

Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic[8]
Pitchfork Media(8.3/10)[9]
PopMatters[10]
Exclaim!favorable[11]

The album received positive reviews from the international press upon its release through ATP Records in 2005. Brandon Stosuy of Pitchfork Media wrote that the album will "rip out your eardrums, perhaps even your heart".[12] Dimitri Nasrallah of Exclaim! wrote that the band "ooze intensity and broken hearts, and dealing with both after you've had a few too many drinks and the bars have all closed on you", calling them "a band you need to break up to."[13] 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."[14]

A more mixed review came from Dan Raper of PopMatters who found fault with the lack of "real redemption for the protagonists of these songs: They despair, they drink, and they drown", despite conceding that this is "more a comment on me than on the band" and that the band are "experts at capturing this dark-grey, aqueous world in sprawling, dense garage-blues epics".[15]

Awards & Nominations

The album was also nominated for Triple J's inaugural J Award prize in 2005 (but eventually lost out to Wolfmother)[16] and topped many Australian critics' end-of-year Top 10 lists. It won the inaugural Australian Music Prize, defeating eight other finalists to win the album of the year. [17]

Legacy

In September 2009 the album was performed live in its entirety as part of the All Tomorrow's Parties-curated Don't Look Back series. "Shark Fin Blues", written by the band's Gareth Liddiard and Rui Pereira, was voted by contemporary songwriters as the greatest Australian song in October 2009.[18] The song was later used in the soundtrack of Episode 2 of the American television series Rectify.[19] Britt Daniel of Spoon-fame included it among his 10 favorite records of the decade.[20]

Revisiting the album 10 years later, Matt Hall of Howl and Echoes wrote that "they don’t make albums like this anymore."[21]

Track listing

  1. "Shark Fin Blues" – (Gareth Liddiard, Rui Pereira) 5:43
  2. "Baby²" – (Liddiard, Pereira, Fiona Kitschin, Christian Strybosch) 3:34
  3. "The Best You Can Believe In" – (Liddiard) 7:35
  4. "Locust" – (Liddiard, Pereira, Kitschin, Strybosch) 6:40
  5. "You Really Don't Care" – (Liddiard) 4:40
  6. "Sitting On The Edge Of The Bed Cryin'" – (Liddiard, Pereira, Kitschin, Strybosch) 7:38
  7. "The Freedom In The Loot" – (Liddiard) 6:16
  8. "Another Rousing Chorus You Idiots!!!!" – (Liddiard) 5:57
  9. "This Time" – (Liddiard, James McCann) 5:34

Personnel

The Drones
  • Fiona Kitschin – bass, vocals, piano
  • Gareth Liddiard – guitar, vocals, synth, hammond
  • Rui Pereira – guitar, vocals, violin
  • Christian Strybosch – drums, vocals
Additional musicians
  • Steve Hesketh – hammond wurlitzer

References

  1. ↑ Pitchfork Media review
  2. ↑
  3. ↑
  4. ↑
  5. ↑ Pitchfork Media review
  6. ↑
  7. ↑
  8. ↑
  9. ↑ Pitchfork Media review
  10. ↑
  11. ↑
  12. ↑ Pitchfork Media review
  13. ↑
  14. ↑
  15. ↑
  16. ↑ http://www.abc.net.au/triplej/jawards/05/
  17. ↑ https://www.australianmusicprize.com.au/shortlists/2005/
  18. ↑ Donovan, Patrick (30 October 2009). "Drones' 'Shark Fin Blues' tops rock list". The Age. Fairfax Media. Archived from the original on 17 April 2017. Retrieved 18 March 2018.
  19. ↑ https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2247142/soundtrack?ref_=tt_trv_snd
  20. ↑
  21. ↑
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