William Orbit sessions

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).^[17] 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.^[18][19] 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."^[17]

Orbit co-wrote and produced two songs for Testament.^[10] The first, "Testament In Motion", was a revisited demo that he wrote with Lewis in 2008 during the band's second hiatus.^[20] 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.^[9][20] "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.^[9] The song went through many mixes with Lewis not playing some to the rest of the band because she saw no point.^[21]

Critical response

Professional ratings

Aggregate scores
Source	Rating
AnyDecentMusic?	6.1/10[22]
Metacritic	61/100[23]
Review scores
Source	Rating
The Arts Desk	[24]
Classic Pop	[25]
The Daily Telegraph	[2]
Evening Standard	[26]
God Is in the TV	8/10[27]
The Guardian	[28]
The Independent	[29]
The Observer	[30]
Q	[31]

Testament received generally favourable reviews from music critics. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from publications, it received a weighted average score of 61, based on 5 reviews.^[23] AnyDecentMusic? gave the album 6.1 out of 10, based on their assessment of the critical consensus.^[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" and "solidified their return as one of the most pleasing comebacks of recent times."^[27] 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."^[26] Thomas H. Green of The Arts Desk wrote that "alongside solid songwriting, it consistently showcases a proud upbeat sense of unforced optimism that's welcome."^[24] The Independent's Elizabeth Aubrey believed All Saints evolved their sound and regarded Testament as "a welcome and judicious follow on from Red Flag."^[29]

In a mixed review, The Daily Telegraph music critic Neil McCormick called it the band's best album in two decades, writing that it "elegantly updates" their sound, but felt its "looking-for-a-man stuff is out of kilter with their independent swagger".^[2] 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".^[30] Writing for Q magazine, Michael Cragg commented that although Testament "produces occasional magic", it is "often suffocated by vaguely outré production flourishes".^[31] Laura Snapes of The Guardian was less impressed, writing that the group were "drowned out by digital clutter". She described the album as "clenched and over-serious" and "mostly weak Lemonade."^[28]

Chart performance

Testament debuted at number 15 on the UK Albums Chart, with first-week sales of 3,486 units.^[32]