He had scored a series of hit singles with his previous solo album No Jacket Required (1985) and with Genesis on Invisible Touch (1986), and recognised this period as "severe danger of overkill" due to the high amount of radio airplay the songs had received.

[7] To combat this, Collins took a year out solely from music and accepted a lead role in Buster (1988), a romantic comedy film based on the Great Train Robbery.

Collins recorded "Two Hearts" and "A Groovy Kind of Love" for the soundtrack, which led to his belief that people thought his songs had become "Very, very light.

"[7] When he started work on his next solo album, Collins deliberately shifted styles by addressing more serious issues in his lyrics and songs with greater depth than the dance-oriented approach for No Jacket Required.

[8] Primarily, Collins wrote and demoed the songs at his Old Croft home onto a 12-track recorder with piano, drum machine & keyboards, then he did a guide vocal to improvise lyric and melody ideas.

[9] ...But Seriously was recorded between April and October 1989 at The Farm in Chiddingfold, Surrey and A&M Studios in Los Angeles, California.

Collins made a conscious decision not to rely on vocal effects on the album as his previous recordings, including with Genesis, involved the use of a harmoniser and echo and he looked back on this as a way of hiding the perceived drawbacks he had about his singing.

But unlike some of his earlier work, Collins takes a more mature and reflective approach when looking at the relationships in his life.

As with his previous albums Collins wrote the sleeve notes by hand because "that's all part of the personal statement"; the exception being No Jacket Required.

[11] He wrote the text on the "Another Day in Paradise" single on the inbound from the album's European press trip in November 1989.

[11] Atlantic Records initially placed a sticker on the CD version that read "Two bonus tracks" which Collins disagreed with and clarified that they were "extra" songs.

It was the last song written for the album and was originally for the Four Tops, but it was not delivered to the group as Collins wanted to keep it for himself by the time it was finished.

[10] While the song was being arranged in the studio in England, Stuermer had devised some chords for the chorus which resulted in Nathan East playing bass on the new parts as Sklar had left for the US.

[10] "Colours" is a politically themed song condemning apartheid in South Africa and displays a progressive rock influence.

[10] Among the inspirational sources for the song was Collins's stay in Washington, D.C., while on tour and encountered homeless people by Capitol Hill trying to keep warm and the contradiction of the White House being so close by.

The closing track, "Find a Way to My Heart", is a simple rock-sounding love song, though with a heavy horn section and a synthesized intro and coda.

1, including the whole competitive Christmas season, and at the end of 1989 became the third best-selling album of the year in the country after only six weeks on sale.

In his review for AllMusic, Geoff Orens praised the decision to use more live instrumentation than No Jacket Required, saying "there's no doubt that tracks such as 'Find a Way to My Heart' and 'Hang in Long Enough' have enough bite to outlast his more dated sounding mid-80s material."

He criticised the album for "too many generic ballads", but added that "when Collins moves out of his formula", citing "the dramatic gospel-influenced 'I Wish it Would Rain Down', [...] the results are staggering.

That album wasn't perfect, by any means, and nowhere near as good as his preceding three records, but it allowed Collins to delve into serious subject matter and more serious musical territory while also retaining the sense of slick, fun pop he had traded in throughout the '80s.