''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 musician, DJ, songwriter, singer and music producer from Nantes, based in Los Angeles. He initially came to widespread public attention at age 17 th ...

. It was released on 15 November 2019 through

Columbia Records Columbia Records is an American reco ...

. The album features contributions and vocals from Callie Day,

Spoonface Elroy Powell, better known by his stage name Spoonface (born 28 August 1973), is a British singer, songwriter, producer and actor. He is known as a member of the music group Black Legend. Career Spoonface achieved international recording succ ...

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

, 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, singer, songwriter, and record producer. Born in Atlanta, Georgia, and raised in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, Robinson began producing electronic music during his adolescence. He sign ...

, "

Shelter A shelter is an architectural structure or natural formation (or a combination of the two) providing protection from the local environment. A shelter can serve as a home or be provided by a residential institution. It can be understood as both ...

". 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 Hip-hop or hip hop (originally disco rap) is a popular music genre that emerged in the early 1970s from the African-American community of New York City. The style is characterized by its synthesis of a wide range of musical techniques. Hip- ...

music, as well as artists like

Frank Ocean Frank Ocean (born Christopher Edwin Breaux; October 28, 1987) is an American singer and songwriter. He has been credited by several music journalism, music critics as a pioneer of the alternative R&B genre. Ocean has won two Grammy Awards and a B ...

Tyler, the Creator Tyler Gregory Okonma (born March 6, 1991), known professionally as Tyler, the Creator, is an American rapper, singer, songwriter, and record producer. He has been cited as an influential figure in alternative hip-hop during the 2010s. Tyler beca ...

Kraftwerk Kraftwerk (, ) is a Germany, German Electronic music, electronic band formed in Düsseldorf in 1970 by Ralf Hütter and Florian Schneider. Widely considered innovators and pioneers of electronic music, Kraftwerk was among the first successful a ...

, and

Pink Floyd Pink Floyd are an English Rock music, 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 experiments ...

, 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. They achieved popularity in the late 1990s as part of the French house movement, combining house music, funk, disco, tech ...

and

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

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 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., a locom ...

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'', 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 (, ; ; or ; ) is a city in the Loire-Atlantique department of France on the Loire, from the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic coast. The city is the List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, sixth largest in France, with a pop ...

. Leclercq also spent some time in

Ålesund Ålesund () is a List of towns and cities in Norway, town in Møre og Romsdal county, Norway. The town is the administrative centre of Ålesund Municipality. The centre of the town of Ålesund lies on the islands of Hessa, Aspøya, Ålesund, Asp� ...

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and the archipelago of Svalbard also form part of the Kingdom of ...

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

Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

and decided to move to

Hollywood Hills The Hollywood Hills is a residential neighborhood in the central region of Los Angeles, California. It borders Studio City, Universal City and Burbank on the north, Griffith Park on the north and east, Los Feliz on the southeast, Hollyw ...

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 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 Christianity, Christian message ("the gospel"), but in the second century Anno domino, AD the term (, from which the English word originated as a calque) came to be used also for the books in which the message w ...

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 recognition, could be a hole, pocket, or notch * Feature (computer vision), could be an edge, corner or blob * Feature (machine learning), in statistics: individual measurable properties of the phenome ...

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,

, 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 ...

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

nu-disco Nu-disco is a 21st-century dance music genre associated with a renewed interest in the late 1970s disco, synthesizer-heavy 1980s European dance music styles, and early 1990s electronic dance music. The genre was popular in the early 2000s, and exp ...

French house French house (also referred to as French touch, filter house, or tekfunk) is a style of house music devised by French musicians in the 1990s. It is a form of Eurodisco and a popular strand of the late 1990s and 2000s European dance music s ...

, and EDM. 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 singer and multi-instrumentalist Kevin Parker (musician), Kevin Parker. In the recording studio, Parker writes, records, performs, and produces all of the project's music. As a touring a ...

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 indie pop band the xx. He has been described as a " ...

The Zombies The Zombies are an English Rock music, rock band formed in St Albans in 1961. Led by keyboardist/vocalist Rod Argent and lead vocalist Colin Blunstone, the group had their first British and American hit in 1964 with "She's Not There". In the U ...

, Anderson .Paak,

Chance the Rapper Chancelor Johnathan Bennett (born April 16, 1993), known professionally as Chance the Rapper, is an American rapper. Born and raised in Chicago, Illinois, he released his debut mixtape '' 10 Day'' (2012) during one of his high school suspension ...

, and

the Weeknd Abel Makkonen Tesfaye (; born February 16, 1990), known professionally as the Weeknd, is a Canadian singer-songwriter, record producer, and actor. He is best known for adding Pop music, pop, electronic music, electronic and hip-hop stylings ...

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 harmo ...

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 genre of electronic dance music characterized by a repetitive Four on the floor (music), four-on-the-floor beat and a typical tempo of 115–130 beats per minute. It was created by DJs and music producers from Chicago's underground ...

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

arpeggiation An arpeggio () is a type of chord in which the notes that compose a chord are individually sounded in a progressive rising or descending order. Arpeggios on keyboard instruments may be called rolled chords. Arpeggios may include all notes ...

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. Era or ERA may also refer to: * Era (geology), a subdivision of geologic time * Calendar era Education * Academy of European Law (German: '), an international law school * ERA School, in Melbourne, Australia * E ...

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 everything in existence; everything that is not imagination, imaginary. Different Culture, cultures and Academic discipline, academic disciplines conceptualize it in various ways. Philosophical questions abo ...

, 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 were. After an event has occurred, people often believe ...

. 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 a vinyl record (for later varieties only) is an analog signal, analog sound Recording medium, storage medium in the form of a flat disc with an inscribed, ...

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

scavenger hunt A scavenger hunt is a game in which the organizers prepare a list defining specific items that need to be found, which the participants seek to gather or complete all items on the list, usually without purchasing them. Usually participants work i ...

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 One More Time may refer to: Film and television * ''One More Time'' (1931 film), a Merrie Melodies cartoon * ''One More Time'' (1970 film), a film by Jerry Lewis * ''One More Time'', a 1974 TV special with Carol Channing, Pearl Bailey, and other ...

", 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 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 g ...

and directed by

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

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 (state), a state in the northeastern United States * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York New York may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * ...

, 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 () is an annual American four-day music festival held in Grant Park (Chicago), Grant Park in Chicago. It originally started as a touring event in 1991, with Chicago becoming its permanent location beginning in 2005. Music genres i ...

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 Charlie Yin, professionally known as Giraffage, is an American electronic music record producer. Of Taiwanese descent, Yin grew up in San Jose, California, and graduated from the University of California, Berkeley, with a degree in Political Eco ...

, Flamingosis, and

Instupendo Aidan Peterson, professionally known as Instupendo, is an American music producer, composer and recording artist working primarily in electronic, experimental pop, art pop, electro pop and ambient genres. Raised in Philadelphia, he began his musi ...

. 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 city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , ; ; ) is the capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, largest city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. It has a population of 933,680 in June 2024 within the city proper, 1,457,018 in the City Re ...

, and

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

. 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 cit ...

and ended on 14 December in

Austin, Texas Austin ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the U.S. state of Texas. It is the county seat and most populous city of Travis County, Texas, Travis County, with portions extending into Hays County, Texas, Hays and W ...

, 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 ''London Standard'', formerly the ''Evening Standard'' (1904–2024) and originally ''The Standard'' (1827–1904), is a long-established regional newspaper published weekly and distributed free newspaper, free of charge in London, Engl ...

'' 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, 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 advertis ...

Hot Dance/Electronic Songs Hot Dance/Electronic Songs (formerly Dance/Electronic Songs) is a record chart has been published weekly by ''Billboard'' since January 2013. It is their first chart to be published that ranks the most popular dance and electronic songs according ...

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