Deacon Blue's third album, Fellow Hoodlums (1991), sold half as many copies as its predecessor, When the World Knows Your Name (1989), and was critically panned,[2] though it did receive a Platinum certification in the United Kingdom.

[3] Believing that they had firmly "established their sound" by the release of Fellow Hoodlums, lead singer Ricky Ross comments that the band wished to pursue a drastic change in direction for the follow-up album, Whatever You Say, Say Nothing.

[4][5] Bassist Ewen Vernal said that the production duo were recommended by A&R staff, and that the group chose them because their musical background was highly different to "anything we've ever done", believing that it had "got to the point where any new project we want to get into we try and approach with some kind of challenge in mind.

"[6] According to Ross, the duo of Osborne and Oakenfold were one of several "oddball names", another being David Byrne, that the band piled with A&R workers, hoping to find "someone to visit the studio every two weeks and be a kind of upsetting factor in the whole thing".

[2] Oakenfold and Osborne had recently completed their work on the Happy Mondays' Pills 'n' Thrills and Bellyaches (1990) when Sony approached them to produce the Deacon Blue album.

"[6] Music author Richard Norris writes that although recording with Oakenfold and Osborne was intended to "invigorate the band's creativity with a fresh new approach", the sessions were not wholly successful in this regard.

[7] Oakenfold said that Deacon Blue initially agreed to his ideas about moving their sound in an edgier direction, but that once he and Osborne entered the studio, the band changed their mind, having just released their best-selling single.

"[2] For Whatever You Say, Say Nothing, Ricky Ross stirred Deacon Blue's sound into a more rock-oriented direction than their previous folk-tinged work,[12] with the "unlikely" team-up with Osborne and Oakenfold contributing to the "major sonic departure" and giving it a dance edge.

[16] Music critic Barbara Jaegar believes the group "boosted its rhythm quotient" for a more immediate feel, departing from the ethereal, soulful pop sound of its predecessors.

[17] The reviewer John Harris contends that the album – through Oakenfold and Osborne's input – features a similar sound to Happy Mondays' Pills 'n' Thrills and Bellyaches.

[18] According to critic William Ruhlmann, Ross adopts a "high, breathy singing voice with lots of echo", and writes lyrics with more universal themes in contrast to earlier songs inspired by the Glasgow neighbourhood he grew up in.

[2] Nicole Meighan of The Scotsman wrote of the "fierce undercurrent of frustration and ragged anger" that characterises parts of the album, considering it "an impression, perhaps, of a band at sea, fighting against the tide.

[18] The driving, guitar-driven "Hang Your Head" features dance beats and "stainless steel guitar strings",[23][24] while "Bethlehem's Gate" is one of several songs characterised by what Ruhlmann describes as "relentless, martial drumming and rhythmic instruments that played pulse patterns rather than complete chords".

[19] "Last Night I Dreamed of Henry Thomas" was singled out by reviewer Andy Gill as an anomaly for its "odd, miasmic arrangement and sounds lurking and looming out of the work".

[29][8] Similarly to U2's Achtung Baby, the album is titled with an "ironic slogan",[30] and coinciding with its release, Ross began wearing sunglasses and "rock star togs", in a manner that Harris compared with Bono.

[36] For the shows, Ross dressed in silvery lurex and wraparound sunglasses, drawing comparison to Bono, and used a megaphone and inspection lamp, similar to Tom Waits.

[7] In his NME review, John Harris criticised the album for exuding "the wish to play the reinvention game à la U2, and suddenly become fashionable", believing that the band's A&R staff told them to "get trendy" in face of their failure to reach stadium-selling status.

"[21] In his review, The Daily Herald's Rick Anderson described Whatever You Say, Say Nothing as "just plain better than average" and praised "Your Town", but believed the album failed to keep its momentum, with the following songs "shadows of the opening track".

"[24] Lou Carlozo of the Chicago Tribune believed that, due to Oakenfold and Osborne's production, Deacon Blue's sound was comparable to rowdy bands like Jesus Jones, the Charlatans and the Happy Mondays, and considered Whatever You Say to "[ooze] attitude".

[13] A reviewer for the Calgary Herald compared the album to a mixture of INXS and the Pet Shop Boys merged with "a dreamy, hazy production that make the lead vocals sound like they were recorded through asbestos", but deemed this the fashionable way to create "good white-boy disco – oops, dance music.

"[39] Virginia Trioli of The Age opined, "Whatever You Say is a really terrific album – solid, thematically tight with a rich and seeping sound reminiscent of Prefab Sprout at their best.

[19] The South Florida Sun-Sentinel reviewer John Lannert opined that Deacon Blue should achieve US success with their "smart, rhythmic rock album replete with eloquent, slate-gray narratives about genuine love and societal injustice".

[23] In a retrospective review for AllMusic, William Ruhlmann characterised the band eschewing their earlier folky sound for a rockier direction: "It was as if, having failed at becoming the next Van Morrison, Ross decided to become the next Bono.

"[7] Colin Larkin credits the album's poor reception, as well as Deacon Blue's lack of commercial success in the US, as contributing factors in the band's decision to split in mid-1994.

[32] In an article on Deacon Blue's career, David Belcher of The Herald reflected that by "risibly" employing Oakenfold as producer, the album "openly signalled a clueless leap aboard a dance-rock bandwagon that had sho' nuff done gone left town two years previous.

"[30] In a guide to Deacon Blue's work, David Burke of Classic Pop believes that as part of the shift in musical direction, Ross "traded his inner Boss for his inner Bono, especially on the histrionic 'Bethlehem’s Gate' and 'All Over the World'.