The 555

My Most Played 555 Songs

No. 464
The Drugs Don’t Work
by The Verve

The last post (Blur’s Parklife) was about a song released at the height of Britpop, a period full of optimism and aspiration that was reflected in the music.of the time. By 97 when The Verve’s masterpiece, Urban Hymns was released, a lot of that optimism a had changed to cynical, introspective concepts or focusing on negative subjects with more downbeat music. Blur themselves were making songs like Beetlebum about heroin, and Song 2 which was full of angst. The Verve were never really part of that Britpop genre scene, but the shift within the genre towards The Verve’s kind of sound certainly was timed well with the era Urban Hymns was released.

The Drugs Don’t Work is a really honest and direct song. It’s unclear if it’s about cancer drugs and death of Ashcrofts father, or about him splitting with his girlfriend of 6 years due to recreational drugs. I believe it’s the latter; the lyrics make much more sense for this. A lot of songs about drugs either glorifies then, or discusses the negatives in a cryptic way so indirect and subjectively it’s hard to understand the intended meaning. This song, even the title is just very simple, unashamed and direct with its meaning. It’s an alternative kind of love song, not just with the subject, but how the protagonist is singing about someone who he’s in love with who is clearly in a bad place emotionally. Wanting to be with someone in a bad place emotionally isn’t exactly how people envisage their ‘perfect’ partner. Usually love songs sing about the object of their desire’s perfection, but true love is knowing someone’s imperfections and still loving them. That’s why although The Drug’s Don’t Work is quite dark; it’s sincere and it’s real. Deep, Incredible song, and that’s not even mentioning the beautiful moving vocals, stirring strings and tinny acoustic guitar which is at the exact pitch and volume to rouse emotion but not take any drop of sentiment away from the rest of the vocals/ music. Perfect song.