The Phil Collins series continues with 'Testify'

The last studio album, he testified. Well, sort of. How did Phil Collins' seventh album work out?

Aug 18, 2025

Testify was announced as Phil Collins’ last studio album, six years after the release of Dance into the Light. His home studio was now established in Switzerland, which was where he recorded the demos for this album. His new relationship was going strong, meaning Collins was mostly writing about love, not love gone wrong.

Click the cover and listen to Testify by Phil Collins on the streaming service of your choice.

If you prefer/need them, here are the Apple Music and Spotify links. (Links in the text are to Spotify.)

Would contentment do anything to his songwriting? His happiness with Orianne (well, he was happy then) and her pregnancy with his son Nick during the recording sessions were good news for Phil, but would it be good news for his listeners?

The sound of Testify is midway between Both Sides, which was very clearly based on his home demos with just a few light overdubs, and Dance into the Light, which banished the drum machine and was more of a band album. The audio on Testify has a subtly different character because there’s no Hugh Padgham behind the desk here; this time, the producers are Rob Cavallo and James Sanger. Long-term guitarist for Collins (and live Genesis) Daryll Stuermer is the only survivor from Dance into the Light.

It’s important to review the album that was actually made, not the one I wish had been made. Testify isn’t anywhere near as adventurous as Face Value, but it wasn’t intended to be. I also have to call it as I hear it, even as a Collins fan. Contentment led Phil down the path of bland ballads for this one (mostly – there are exceptions to every rule), and taken for what it’s meant to be, when the mood and the time are right, this is an acceptably good Phil Collins album.

What do I mean by “acceptably good”? These sorts of love songs are what many think a Phil Collins record is (especially as his record label once released a gold-selling compilation called Love Songs.) As we’ve seen in this series, there’s more to Phil than that, even within the boundaries of his solo career. On Testify, he’s adding to his stereotype.

I hadn’t listened to Testify for ages before writing this review. When returning to Both Sides, I found a record that was better than I remembered. Here I’m hearing an album that is blander than I remembered.

‘Wake Up Call’

Let’s shake that off, though, and deal with the more spirited tracks. The opener, ‘Wake Up Call’, plays with key changes and establishes a steady, thoughtful atmosphere. It also brings back Phil’s odd keyboard solos that were a ‘feature’ of Both Sides. I’ve not said too much about these because I’ve never been able to find a way of describing them. Researching this piece, I found a review of Testify on Genesis-News.com that put the words into my mouth: “Unfortunately, Collins has dug up the annoying “beeping sound” for his keyboard solo. It already marred Both Sides and does not really help enjoy this song.” (Bernd Vormwald). Fortunately, there’s less of the beeping sound on this album, but where it occurs, I think Bernd’s use of the word ‘marred’ is justified.

‘Testify’ is, for me, the best song on the album and recalls the Collins glory days. It builds and expresses real emotion and uses a choir to great effect. Think ‘We Fly Too Close’ from Both Sides, although without the same quality of drumming. It’s almost as if the producers of this record had decided to dial back on the gated drum sound Collins is best known for. He could power that effect like no other. Although this album does use computers (ProTools and the like were still something of a new-fangled novelty in 2002), a human feel will always bring something extra.

‘It’s Not too Late’

Elsewhere, there’s an enjoyable cover of the William Nicholls song (made famous by Leo Sayer) ‘Can’t Stop Loving You’. This song suits Phil’s style so well he could have written it himself.

‘Can’t Stop Loving You’

On ‘Swing Low’, Collins sings, “Like the man said, he was right / About something coming in the air tonight.” He quote observes himself, bringing his solo career full circle. While ‘In the Air Tonight’ was mysterious, the songs here are mostly obvious and with little to speak of except love. There’s nothing wrong with that – we need more love in the world – but it is somewhat unrelenting.

‘Swing Low’

There’s one song that does have something to say, taking us back to the days of … But Seriously. On ‘Don’t Get Me Started’, he trashes the inadequacy and duplicity of many politicians, including what was then just the beginning of what we have come to know and loathe as ‘fake news’. The song itself rises above the herd. Angry Phil makes music to return to, and he has made some great solo albums. Nothing can diminish his brilliance as a drummer, and he has written some great prog rock songs with Genesis, Brand X, and solo.

‘Don’t Get Me Started’

If his health had allowed Phil to continue, I suspect there would have been at least one more brilliant collection of songs. That was not to be, and we’ll always have the records he did make. Testify might not be the most adventurous of those, but it has its moments.

'LP' by Ian Paul Sharp

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