The Verve: Drugs don't work

The music video for this song was directed by Andy Baybutt. When the video first starts, it looks similar to other videos in which the verve have produced, howver it then goes on to be very different. The video is partially black and white throughtout, which gives the audience the impression that the state of mind of characters is changing as frequently and randomly as the audience are seeing.
The use of flashing lights and quick cross cuts also gives the audience an abstract impression. it makes the shot look at little like a point of view shot at times. The video has very low lighting for the majority of the time, making it appear dark for the audience and quite hard for them to see what is happening in great detail.

The band appears in the same formation and clothes as they did at the end of the video for "Bitter Sweet Symphony". The cover of the machine on the front of the album No Come Down also appears briefly. The band turns around a corner and walks over to a vending machine called "Feelings." This refers to the song "Life's an Ocean" from their second album, A Northern Soul, where Ashcroft sings, "I was buying some feelings from a vending machine" (the same vending machine is also seen on the back of that album). The rest of the video shows, partially in black and white, the band playing the song indoors. The video ends with a piece of burning wood, with the words 'Urban Hymns' written on, floating on water. The original concept for the video was to have the band filmed in a maze to illustrate "loss of direction".

The song was released in 1995 and was writeen by Richard Ashcroft. He briefly mentioned it in an interview at the time, relating it to his drug usage: "There's a new track I've just written [...] It goes 'the drugs don't work, they just make me worse, and I know I'll see your face again'. That's how I'm feeling at the moment. They make me worse, man. But I still take 'em. Out of boredom and frustration you turn to something else to escape."