| Phil Collins is to pop music what Heinz is to baked beans, and like that familiar and ubiquitous brand, he consistently delivers the goods. Testify, his follow-up to 1996's Dance into the Light, finds the British singer-songwriter strolling through a mostly gentle collection of romantic ballads, with Collins on both the winning and losing end of relationships. He also sends a few messages our way with "Wake Up Call" and "Don't Get Me Started", suggesting his subscription to the Economist is intact. But the chief delight of Testify is in the sonics. Collins has clearly been watching from the sidelines, chin in hand, as his adult-pop contemporaries have layered world beat influences into their music to haunting effect. "Thru My Eyes" is a spiritual cousin of Peter Gabriel's "In Your Eyes"; "The Least You Can Do" has a decidedly Celtic lilt, while "Driving Me Crazy", with its woozy cascading synth, is destined for car-commercial grandeur rivalling Sting. The title track, appropriately, gets added ballast from a choir while a cover of the weepy "Can't Stop Loving You" (also recorded by Leo Sayer in the 1970s) is a worthy successor to Collins's own "One More Night". --Kim Hughes |
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