Re Release
Whatever You Say , Say Nothing
Q Magazine April 1999

Final album from Scottish bards. Produced by Paul Oakenfold and Steve Osborne.Having ploughed a successful path since 1988 with earnest Steely Dan-like AOR, Deacon Blue felt, in 1993, that perhaps they'd taken this formula as far as they could together.

Thus, Whatever You Say, Say Nothing was a last ditch attempt at reinvention, the band doing a U2 by enlisting the production skills of Steve Osborne and Paul Oakenfold, two men more at home in clubs than the middle of the road. But, much like, say, Van Morrison suddenly getting together with Pete Waterman, this collaboration simply didn't work. Your Town resembled - surely unintentionally - a Fleetwood Mac B-side, while everything else remained curiously sludgy, singer Ricky Ross sounding like a confused teacher suddenly thrust into the school disco. And he made a terrible dancer.

Nick Duerden