The beginning of the video shows the band walking down the street, following on from the end of "Bitter Sweet Symphony".

[4] Ranked number seven on Channel 4's list of the "100 Greatest #1 Singles", the sombre nature of the song unintentionally captured the spirit of the nation as it was released the day after Princess Diana died.

[5] In October 2011, NME placed "The Drugs Don't Work" at number 78 on its list "150 Best Tracks of the Past 15 Years".

[10] Alan Jones from Music Week wrote, "Beautifully orchestrated, semi-acoustic and distinctly old-fashioned, it's a melancholy ballad executed with great panache and enormous style by a group who can only get bigger.

"[11] Jon Wiederhorn from Rolling Stone described the song as "a tear-stained ballad enhanced with sparse, nebulous horns and reverberating pedal steel guitar.