''Good Faith'' is the second studio album by French DJ and record producer

Madeon Hugo Pierre Leclercq (; born 30 May 1994), better known by his stage name Madeon (), is a French DJ and music producer from Nantes, currently based in Los Angeles. He initially came to widespread public attention at 17 through a YouTube video, " ...

. It was released on 15 November 2019 through

Columbia Records Columbia Records is an American record label owned by Sony Music, Sony Music Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Corporation of America, the North American division of Japanese Conglomerate (company), conglomerate Sony. It was founded on Janua ...

. The album features contributions and vocals from Callie Day, Spoonface,

Audra Mae Audra Mae (born February 20, 1984) is an American singer and songwriter from Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. She is the great-great-niece of Judy Garland, and a great granddaughter of Garland's sister Jimmie. Since arriving in California in 2007, she has ...

, James the Human, Brasstracks, and the West Los Angeles Children's Choir. The album was promoted by three singles: " All My Friends", "Dream Dream Dream", and "Be Fine". The album received mixed to positive reviews from critics.

Background

In late 2016, Leclercq released a joint single with friend and fellow electronic producer

Porter Robinson Porter Weston Robinson (born July 15, 1992) is an American DJ, record producer, musician, and singer from Chapel Hill, North Carolina. Robinson began producing music in his childhood. He signed to Skrillex's record label Owsla, OWSLA at the age o ...

, "

Shelter Shelter is a small building giving temporary protection from bad weather or danger. Shelter may also refer to: Places * Port Shelter, Hong Kong * Shelter Bay (disambiguation), various locations * Shelter Cove (disambiguation), various locatio ...

". He took a break from touring in late 2017 and 2018 to work on his second album. Leclercq felt that the sincere style of lyric writing he used for “Shelter” could be incorporated into his Madeon music, and not simply have his music production and songs be a vehicle for other people's stories. He recorded and wrote the album while traveling in Europe and across North America. Leclercq released his single " All My Friends" in May 2019, three years since "Shelter". He then subsequently released two more singles in July and October and announced the release date for his album as 15 November 2019. During ''Good Faith''’s production, Leclercq listened to a plethora of hip hop music, as well as artists like

Frank Ocean Christopher Francis "Frank" Ocean (born Christopher Edwin Breaux; October 28, 1987), is an American singer, songwriter, and rapper. His works are noted by music critics for featuring avant-garde styles and introspective, elliptical lyrics. Ocean ...

Tyler, the Creator Tyler Gregory Okonma (born March 6, 1991), known professionally as Tyler, the Creator, is an American rapper and record producer. He is one of the founding members of the music collective Odd Future. Okonma self-released his debut mixtape Bast ...

Kraftwerk Kraftwerk (, "power station") is a German band formed in Düsseldorf in 1970 by Ralf Hütter and Florian Schneider. Widely considered innovators and pioneers of electronic music, Kraftwerk were among the first successful acts to popularize the ...

, and

Pink Floyd Pink Floyd are an English rock band formed in London in 1965. Gaining an early following as one of the first British psychedelic music, psychedelic groups, they were distinguished by their extended compositions, sonic experimentation, philo ...

, and states that their music gave inspiration for some of the production styles of the album. He also frequently cites

Daft Punk Daft Punk were a French electronic music duo formed in 1993 in Paris by Thomas Bangalter and Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo. Widely regarded as one of the most influential acts in dance music history, they achieved popularity in the late 1990s as p ...

and

The Beatles The Beatles were an English Rock music, rock band, formed in Liverpool in 1960, that comprised John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. They are regarded as the Cultural impact of the Beatles, most influential band of al ...

as constant heavy influences on his songwriting and production, even before he began writing ''Good Faith''.

Recording

As Leclercq finished touring his ''

Adventure An adventure is an exciting experience or undertaking that is typically bold, sometimes risky. Adventures may be activities with danger such as traveling, exploring, skydiving, mountain climbing, scuba diving, river rafting, or other extreme spo ...

'' album on the Pixel Empire Tour in early 2016, he stayed in a New York studio for three days to conceive concepts for a second studio album. He has stated that "

Porter Porter may refer to: Companies * Porter Airlines, Canadian regional airline based in Toronto * Porter Chemical Company, a defunct U.S. toy manufacturer of chemistry sets * Porter Motor Company, defunct U.S. car manufacturer * H.K. Porter, Inc., ...

had heard some of the music I was writing and really liked it, and it kind of inspired us to make '

'". During production of "Shelter" and the ''

Shelter Live Tour The Shelter Live Tour was a collaborative concert tour by French DJ and record producer Madeon and American DJ and record producer Porter Robinson in support of their single "Shelter". The tour visited North America, Europe, Asia and Australia fr ...

'', Leclercq stated that he always had the intention to eventually produce ''Good Faith''. For his whole life, Leclercq had produced his music, including the entirety of ''Adventure'' and the beginnings of ''Good Faith'', mainly out of his studio in his parents basement in

Nantes Nantes (, , ; Gallo: or ; ) is a city in Loire-Atlantique on the Loire, from the Atlantic coast. The city is the sixth largest in France, with a population of 314,138 in Nantes proper and a metropolitan area of nearly 1 million inhabita ...

. Leclercq also spent some time in

Ålesund Ålesund () sometimes spelled Aalesund in English, is a municipality in Møre og Romsdal County, Norway. It is part of the traditional district of Sunnmøre and the centre of the Ålesund Region. The town of Ålesund is the administrative ...

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and t ...

producing some of the album at Ocean Sound Recordings. While touring in 2018, he was playing a show in

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

and decided to move to

Hollywood Hills The Hollywood Hills are a residential neighborhood in the central region of Los Angeles, California. Geography The Hollywood Hills straddle the Cahuenga Pass within the Santa Monica Mountains. The neighborhood touches Studio City, Univer ...

from France, relocating his studio as well. Leclercq has sole production, mixing, and mastering credit for all songs on the album. He states that the writing and production of the album was mostly a solitary effort, as only two of the songs have a co-writer. Leclercq would "sometimes ryto grab something" from a collaborator, like an instrumental performance or a vocal recording. After releasing two of the leading singles off of ''Good Faith'', on 14 October 2019 Leclercq sent out an emotional letter to fans on his e-mail list and social media, opening up about his depression after performing a debut

Good Faith Live ''Good Faith'' is the second studio album by French DJ and record producer Madeon. It was released on 15 November 2019 through Columbia Records. The album features contributions and vocals from Callie Day, Spoonface, Audra Mae, James the Human, ...

show at Lollapalooza. He stated that he had put production and release of the album on hold to give himself time to recuperate and "be healthy".

Composition

Leclercq selected the album title "''Good Faith''" several years prior to its release. He states that he enjoys both the "spiritual" and "candid, legal" interpretations of the title, and that he found both words to be profound and evocative of the idea behind the album. Leclercq has stated although that he meant for the choirs and soul singers on the album to sound like they were taken from other songs, the album contains no use of sampling. Leclercq instead opted to record live choirs and solo

gospel Gospel originally meant the Christian message ("the gospel"), but in the 2nd century it came to be used also for the books in which the message was set out. In this sense a gospel can be defined as a loose-knit, episodic narrative of the words an ...

singers. In addition, he also recorded live drums and numerous live instruments. When recording his first and previous studio album ''

'', Leclercq provided vocals for three tracks. He has also spoken about how writing and performing the vocals for his and

's single "

" caused him to want to stray away from having traditional

features Feature may refer to: Computing * Feature (CAD), could be a hole, pocket, or notch * Feature (computer vision), could be an edge, corner or blob * Feature (software design) is an intentional distinguishing characteristic of a software item ...

to lean more towards performing the vocals himself citing a wish for the album to feel like "more of an embodied artist project". Leclercq provides vocals for every song on ''Good Faith'', aside from "Heavy With Hoping". ''Good Faith'' takes inspiration from R&B, hip hop,

, and

funk Funk is a music genre that originated in African American communities in the mid-1960s when musicians created a rhythmic, danceable new form of music through a mixture of various music genres that were popular among African Americans in the m ...

music, while also being influenced by Leclercq's background producing nu-disco,

French house French house, also known as French touch, filter house and tekfunk, is a style of house music originally produced by French musicians in the 1990s. It is a form of Euro disco and a popular strand of the late 1990s and 2000s European dance m ...

, and

EDM EDM or E-DM may refer to: Music * Electronic dance music * Early Day Miners, American band Science and technology * Electric dipole moment * Electrical discharge machining * Electronic distance measurement *Entry, Descent, and landing demonstrat ...

. He states he listened to artists that he adjectively describes as "so ''Good Faith''":

Tame Impala Tame Impala is the psychedelic music project of Australian multi-instrumentalist Kevin Parker. In the recording studio, Parker writes, records, performs, and produces all of the project's music. As a touring act, Tame Impala consists of Parke ...

Jamie xx James Thomas Smith (born 28 October 1988), known professionally as Jamie xx, is an English musician, DJ, record producer and remixer. He is known for both his solo work and as a member of the English indie pop band The xx. He has been described ...

The Zombies The Zombies are an English rock band formed in the early 1960s in St Albans and led by keyboardist and vocalist Rod Argent and vocalist Colin Blunstone. The group had a British and American hit in 1964 with "She's Not There". In the US, two fu ...

, Anderson .Paak,

Chance the Rapper Chancelor Johnathan Bennett (born April 16, 1993), known professionally as Chance the Rapper, is an American rapper, singer-songwriter, and record producer. Born and raised in Chicago, Bennett released his debut mixtape '' 10 Day'' in 2012. He ...

, and

The Weeknd Abel Makkonen Tesfaye (born February 16, 1990), known professionally as the Weeknd, is a Canadian singer, songwriter, record producer, and actor. Known for his sonic versatility and dark lyricism, his music explores escapism, Romance (love), ...

Technical aspects

Leclercq is adept in various vocal processing techniques. He uses them throughout his past releases as well as in ''Good Faith''. In many of the album's tracks, Leclercq most notably uses vocal chopping on R&B style vocals in "Dream Dream Dream", "Nirvana" and "Be Fine", as well as chopping his own vocals in "Miracle". Another technique carried over into the album from previous releases like "Shelter", "Beings", and "Zephyr", is Leclercq's liberal use of "

formant In speech science and phonetics, a formant is the broad spectral maximum that results from an acoustic resonance of the human vocal tract. In acoustics, a formant is usually defined as a broad peak, or local maximum, in the spectrum. For harmoni ...

shifting". This technique shifts peaks in a frequency spectrum to adjust the "openness" of the human voice. This causes Leclercq's voice to sound significantly more or less deep(e.g. in "No Fear No More", "Be Fine") while still singing the same pitch. Leclercq also processes his voice using a

pitch correction Pitch correction is an electronic effects unit or audio software that changes the intonation (highness or lowness in pitch) of an audio signal so that all pitches will be notes from the equally tempered system (i.e., like the pitches on a piano) ...

software to a more distinct degree in ''Good Faith'' than in "Shelter" or any tracks off of ''Adventure''. He also employs classic

house music House is a music genre characterized by a repetitive Four on the floor (music), four-on-the-floor beat and a typical tempo of 120 beats per minute. It was created by Disc jockey, DJs and music producers from Chicago metropolitan area, Chicago' ...

techniques like kick drum side-chaining, which is heavily used in "Mania". He also uses fast

arpeggiation A broken chord is a chord broken into a sequence of notes. A broken chord may repeat some of the notes from the chord and span one or more octaves. An arpeggio () is a type of broken chord, in which the notes that compose a chord are played ...

with little attack in most of the tracks to add "flutter". He utilizes classic nu-disco and French house style bass-lines, clap patterns, and synth sounds, reminiscent of Leclercq's signature sound from previous releases as exemplified in "No Fear No More" and "All My Friends".

Themes

''Good Faith'' consists of ten tracks. This is significantly less than his previous album, but Leclercq defends this by saying that he thinks of the ten tracks and surrounding production more like an

era An era is a span of time defined for the purposes of chronology or historiography, as in the regnal eras in the history of a given monarchy, a calendar era used for a given calendar, or the geological eras defined for the history of Earth. Comp ...

than an album. He says that, even after the album's release, "there'll be more ''Good Faith''." Leclercq says that the theme of the album is about a person's love, questioning, and relationship to

reality Reality is the sum or aggregate of all that is real or existent within a system, as opposed to that which is only imaginary. The term is also used to refer to the ontological status of things, indicating their existence. In physical terms, r ...

, and the validity of emotion with the benefit of positive

hindsight Hindsight bias, also known as the knew-it-all-along phenomenon or creeping determinism, is the common tendency for people to perceive past events as having been more predictable than they actually were. People often believe that after an event ha ...

. He also has said that his mood, mental health and questioning his own joy and enthusiasm have been heavy themes that he wanted to impress into the album. Similarly to what he did with ''Adventure'', Leclercq makes a point to hide messages, objects, and code into his album designs and songs, in order to make something that's "worth being a fan of". This was exemplified best during the release of the limited edition "All My Friends"

vinyl record A phonograph record (also known as a gramophone record, especially in British English), or simply a record, is an analog sound storage medium in the form of a flat disc with an inscribed, modulated spiral groove. The groove usually starts nea ...

at specific record stores in the cities in which he had spent time producing ''Good Faith''. This was meant as a

scavenger hunt ''Scavenger Hunt'' is a 1979 American comedy film with a large ensemble cast which includes Richard Benjamin, James Coco, Scatman Crothers, Ruth Gordon, Cloris Leachman, Cleavon Little, Roddy McDowall, Robert Morley, Richard Mulligan, Tony Randa ...

for fans, as he did not specify where the record stores were, and only had eight records pressed, two per store.

Songs

The second track on the album, " All My Friends", was released as the first single in May 2019. Leclercq states that, of the whole album, "All My Friends" is "the most directly and structurally pop song. It's a fun statement to start a campaign with the most confidently pop song." Leclercq considers the track to be an homage to all of his favorite pop music. He compares the release of this track as the first single of ''Good Faith'' to fellow French DJ/producers

's release of " One More Time", the first single off of 2001's ''

Discovery Discovery may refer to: * Discovery (observation), observing or finding something unknown * Discovery (fiction), a character's learning something unknown * Discovery (law), a process in courts of law relating to evidence Discovery, The Discovery ...

''. Leclercq has said that some tracks, like "Dream Dream Dream" were completed early on during production of the album, but held off on releasing them in order to connect all aspects of the album thematically and under one vision.

Art

Leclercq began planning and designing art for ''Good Faith'' as early as 2015. The final artwork is a filtered photo of Leclercq. The filter is a

photo negative In photography, a negative is an image, usually on a strip or sheet of transparent plastic film, in which the lightest areas of the photographed subject appear darkest and the darkest areas appear lightest. This reversed order occurs because th ...

that has its highlights color shifted to green, mid-tones shifted blue, and shadows shifted red. This filter is also used on many of the promotional art, music videos, and single cover art for ''Good Faith'', sometimes varying the colors and shifting between a photo negative and photo positive.

Promotion

Music videos

After the release of each single, Leclercq uploaded both an official audio video and an official music video to his YouTube channel. On 30 July 2020, Leclercq released a video for "Miracle" starring

Maisie Williams Margaret Constance "Maisie" Williams (born 15 April 1997) is an English actress. Williams made her acting debut in 2011 as Arya Stark, a lead character in the HBO epic medieval fantasy television series '' Game of Thrones'' (2011–2019). She ...

and directed by

Lena Headey Lena Kathren Headey ( ; born 3 October 1973) is a British actress. She gained international recognition and acclaim for her portrayal of Cersei Lannister on the HBO epic fantasy drama series '' Game of Thrones'' (2011–2019), for which she re ...

Singles

On 29 May 2019 Leclercq released a preview of " All My Friends", his first single since "

". This preview was released through a new website, goodfaith.world, which contained a video that played the song, along with locations of record stores in four cities:

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

, and

. Each record store was issued two copies of the new single on clear 7" vinyl. On 30 May 2019, the full official audio was released on YouTube.

''Good Faith Radio''

On 10 July 2019, Leclercq premiered the first episode of ''Good Faith Radio'' (Beats 1 Radio on Apple Music), where he debuted ''Good Faith''s second single, "Dream Dream Dream", and played tracks by other artists, including music sent by his fans accompanied by fan-made art. He described the radio show as "...a space I want us to share, I want to introduce you to my favorite things and showcase some of the amazing music and art you create." Along with the radio premiere, "Dream Dream Dream" was released on music streaming platforms and a visualizer video was released on YouTube.

''Good Faith Live'' Tour

In mid-2019, Leclercq announced that his live show, dubbed Good Faith Live, would debut at

Lollapalooza Lollapalooza (Lolla) is an annual American four-day music festival held in Grant Park in Chicago. It originally started as a touring event in 1991 but several years later made Chicago the permanent location for the annual music festival. Musi ...

2019, along with new music. He stated in an interview that he had been writing the album and creating the Good Faith Live show simultaneously, and he wanted the debut of his new show to have an appropriately sized production. It was later revealed his supporting lineup consisted of ford., LP Giobbi, Devault, Ilo Ilo, Giraffage, Flamingosis, and Instupendo. The show consists of Leclercq performing alone on stage triggering samples, playing keys, drums, and singing, while accompanied by themed visuals loosely inspired by the types used in the ''Shelter'' Live Tour. He announced that the first show at Lollapalooza would be followed by shows in

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Amstel'') is the Capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, most populous city of the Netherlands, with The Hague being the seat of government. It has a population ...

, and

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

. A longer North American leg began in October 2019 in

Vancouver Vancouver ( ) is a major city in western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the ...

and ended on 14 December in

Austin, Texas Austin is the capital city of the U.S. state of Texas, as well as the county seat, seat and largest city of Travis County, Texas, Travis County, with portions extending into Hays County, Texas, Hays and Williamson County, Texas, Williamson co ...

, a total of 31 shows. This will be followed by an Australian tour as part of FOMO Festival in January 2020.

Reception

A review of the album from ''Magnetic Magazine'' praised the album, stating "...this new album is a step in a new direction that feels more organic and authentic to Madeon. ''Good Faith'' is his best work yet and what a way to cap off a decade that has seen him grow from a teenager working out of his parents' home in Nantes to a festival headliner and universally loved dance act." An article from London newspaper ''

Evening Standard The ''Evening Standard'', formerly ''The Standard'' (1827–1904), also known as the ''London Evening Standard'', is a local free daily newspaper in London, England, published Monday to Friday in tabloid format. In October 2009, after be ...

'' negatively assessed his use of

, stating he is "using his voice more like a synth". The article also opined that the album lacked originality and that Leclercq sounded like a producer that was "still finding his own voice". The album was nominated for Best Electronic Album for the 2021 Grammy Awards.

Track listing

Notes * All songs produced, arranged, mixed and feature vocals by Hugo Leclercq. * "All My Friends" features additional vocals from Jackson Dean, bass guitar from Jake Bowman, guitar and additional programming from Alex Al, Rob Harris,

Hal Ritson HAL may refer to: Aviation * Halali Airport (IATA airport code: HAL) Halali, Oshikoto, Namibia * Hawaiian Airlines (ICAO airline code: HAL) * HAL Airport, Bangalore, India * Hindustan Aeronautics Limited an Indian aerospace manufacturer of figh ...

, and Richard Adlam, engineering by Tom Norris, and additional piano from Al. * "Be Fine", "Mania" and "Miracle" feature vocals from Callie Day. * "Nirvana" features vocals from Elroy "Spoonface" Powell and additional programming from Richard Adlam and Hal Ritson. * "No Fear No More" features vocals from the West Los Angeles Children's Choir. * "Hold Me Just Because" features contributions from James the Human and Brasstracks. * "Heavy with Hoping" features vocals from

. * "Borealis" features steel guitar by B. J. Cole.

Charts

Five tracks from ''Good Faith'' charted on the US ''

Billboard A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertise ...

Hot Dance/Electronic Songs The Dance/Electronic Songs chart has been published weekly by ''Billboard'' since January 2013. It is the first chart to be published that ranks the most popular dance and electronic songs according to audience impressions, digital downloads, s ...

chart: * "All My Friends" peaked at number 16. * "Be Fine" peaked at 30. * "No Fear No More" peaked at 36. * "Dream Dream Dream" peaked at 37. * "Miracle" peaked at 38.

Release history

References

External links

goodfaith.worldgoodfaith.live
{{Authority control 2019 albums Madeon albums Albums produced by Madeon Columbia Records albums