Testament (album)

In May 2018, All Saints confirmed that they had worked with producer William Orbit for the first time since their second album, Saints & Sinners (2000).[16] Orbit had focused on art instead of music for the last 10 years of his career, and it was not until Lewis and Nicole Appleton ran into him one night in Soho that he suggested working with the band again.[17][18] Recording with Orbit would involve the group doing numerous vocal takes through trial and error, instead of him "chopping up the vocals and piecing them together."[16]

Orbit co-wrote and produced two songs for Testament.[9] The first, "Testament In Motion", was a revisited demo that he wrote with Lewis in 2008 during the band's second hiatus.[19] Lewis kept the demo throughout her time of writing for other singers and bands, believing it was an All Saints song. Blatt was the most reluctant to like the track and found it dated. She gave a lot of musical input and spent time in the studio, picking the song apart and honing in on instruments Lewis never took notice of. These instruments were then enhanced and took the track in a new direction, making it sound completely different to the demo.[8][19] "After All" was the most challenging song on Testament to finish. Lewis wrote the track with Hutch, who produced the group's 2016 single "One Strike", but felt its sound did not fit with the rest of the album and asked Orbit to rework it.[8] The song went through many mixes with Lewis not playing some to the rest of the band because she saw no point.[20]

Professional ratings

Aggregate scores
Source	Rating
AnyDecentMusic?	6.1/10[21]
Metacritic	61/100[22]
Review scores
Source	Rating
The Arts Desk	[23]
The Daily Telegraph	[1]
Evening Standard	[24]
God is in the TV	8/10[25]
The Guardian	[26]
The Independent	[27]
The Observer	[28]
Q	[29]

Testament received generally positive reviews from music critics. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalised rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream publications, the album received an average score of 61, based on 5 reviews.[22] God is in the TV's Jonathan Wright called it "a stylish and confident album full of their usual majestic vocals and strong character" that "reveals its depth the more you listen".[25] He cited members Nicole and Natalie Appleton singing more lines as one of its "biggest strengths" and wrote that Testament "solidified their return as one of the most pleasing comebacks of recent times."[25] Andre Paine of the Evening Standard argued that "closer listening reveals sonic innovation underpinning the melodies," and concluded, "With this assured album, you might realise just how much you've missed them."[24] Thomas H. Green of The Arts Desk found the songwriting solid and said the group returned with "unforced aplomb".[23]

The Independent's Elizabeth Aubrey also believed the band returned with aplomb, and evolved their sound, regarding Testament as "a welcome and judicious follow on from Red Flag", despite "Don't Look Over Your Shoulder" and "Glorious" being "missteps" that "feel like they've come from a different album entirely".[27] In The Daily Telegraph, Neil McCormick hailed it as the group's best album in two decades and said it "elegantly updates" their sound, but its "looking-for-a-man stuff is out of kilter with their independent swagger".[1] Phil Mongredien of The Observer thought the album "finds them going some way to recapturing past glories" but is "let down by a few too many unremarkable ballads".[28] Writing for Q magazine, Michael Cragg commented that although Testament "produces occasional magic", it is "often suffocated by vaguely outré production flourishes".[29] Laura Snapes of The Guardian wrote that All Saints were "drowned out by digital clutter", and derided the album as "clenched and over-serious" and "mostly weak Lemonade."[26]

Testament debuted at number 15 on the UK Albums Chart, with first-week sales of 3,486 units.[30]