Musical and lyrical style The album features a stripped down approach in contrast to Prefab Sprout's other work, leading to one reviewer to dub it the band's "own
Basement Tapes". According to
Q reviewer Phil Sutcliffe, the songs are "pretty, warm, user-friendly". The album was named
Protest Songs because the songs, though not overtly political, generally relate to daily existence more than most of Prefab Sprout's work. McAloon commented ahead of the album's release; "they’re not strictly protest songs as
Bob Dylan or
Billy Bragg would recognise them but somewhere in that field". but describes himself as an
agnostic "with a healthy interest in the mystical". He has said he considers religion a great subject for songwriting because it comes with a unique but widely-understood vocabulary and a poetic resonance.
Songs is the subject of "Diana".According to
Stuart Maconie's NME review of
Protest Songs, the opening track "The World Awake" "cartwheels across your living room, the kind of tune that makes you want to jump for joy and buy the world a drink, its chords dangling in the air like a string of pearls". Both "The World Awake" and the album's second track "Life of Surprises" were described as being in a "philosophical vein behind the up-and-running light soul sounds" by
Q reviewer Phil Sutcliffe. This recording was first released as a
B-side on the single of "Nightingales" before its inclusion on
Protest Songs. In his review of
Protest Songs, Stuart Maconie considered the song to be a potential hit single. "Wicked Things" was one of the ten tracks listed in
NME's "Alternative Best of Prefab Sprout" in 1992. McAloon maintained in several interviews that
Steve McQueen would have been improved had "Dublin" been included on it, saying; "We could have had the ultimate killer album, a record beyond all other records". "Tiffanys" is among the earliest-written Prefab Sprout songs, dating to the band's formation in 1977. It is about Newcastle nightclub Tiffany's, described by McAloon as "very seedy". The band performed in the venue's function room in 1983. "Tiffanys" was frequently included in the band's setlists in the years leading up to its 1985 recording. "Diana" was written in 1982. A regular number in the band's concerts, "Diana" was considered for inclusion on
Swoon, and at one time was planned to be released as a non-album single in Autumn 1984. It is the second of two tracks on
Protest Songs that had previously been released; an earlier recording (produced by Hal Remingto) was the
B-side of "
When Love Breaks Down" in 1984. "Diana" is about the
deification of
Diana, Princess of Wales. McAloon elaborated in a 1984 interview "It’s really about
the Daily Mail, the way they wrote about her. The burden she had". "Talking Scarlet", which concerns forbidden lust, "Till the Cows Come Home" is about a provincial place, and McAloon considered it one of the album's best songs. Like "Dublin", McAloon felt the song would've elevated
Steve McQueen had it been included. Stuart Maconie's
Protest Songs review said the song "reflects darkly on the impoverished
North East". The album's closer "Pearly Gates" was among the ten tracks listed in
NME's "Alternative Best of Prefab Sprout" in 1992. Maconie felt the song "goes to places most pop records have never heard of; quaint and strangely moving with all the emotive power of a half-remembered hymn from schooldays". The song has been described as a precursor to the final tracks on the band's next album,
Jordan: The Comeback, which contains themes of mortality, religion and the afterlife. ==Release==