Heather Phares in Allmusic wrote: "While a few songs wander too close to lunkheaded bar rock, We Need Medicine reveals a surprising amount of vitality and growth for a band that spent nearly half a decade apart.

"[9] In his review for PopMatters, Charles Pitter said: "The music is thorough, raucously ragged, and the lyrics forceful… The Fratellis are quirky, and you almost have to accept that not everything will work to get to the moments of genius.

[11] John D. Luerssen of Rolling Stone lauded the album's first two singles, "Seven Nights, Seven Days" and "This Old Ghost Town".

[14] Conversely, the record was battered by Alan Ashton-Smith in musicOMH, who wrote: "The Fratellis certainly sound like a more mature band now: the problem is that rather than sounding like a group who have grown to maturity, they sound like the kind of mature band that have reformed to plod their way around the stadium and festival circuit once they’ve reached the wrong side of middle age… if this is a band that needs medicine then what they ought to be prescribed is medicine for the soul.

"[12] Paul Faller, in a scathing review for Drowned in Sound, suggested that the band retire after completing any associated live shows.