Madeon - Good Fath

Madeon
Good Fath
2019
Spotify

Madeon has been incredibly quiet since his debut Adventure was released in 2015. He toured with Porter Robinson on a wildly heralded world outing, but released very little in that time frame. It left everyone wondering what he was working on, and where his music would go. The landscape of EDM has vastly changed since 2015; the sounds are different, the effects are different and all in all the vibe is just not the same. The vibe of pure bliss and exciting drops has somewhat left the genre for more dark trappy themes. That however was never going to be Madeon's path. Sonically this album really soars, Madeon is able to blend some seriously slick production with some effervescent themes like on the lead single "All My Friends". He continues to sing through some major auto tune, which gives him a robot voice throughout. It's hard to tell if this serves the music or doesn't because we never get to hear just real voice. The one thing you notice is Madeon has not lost his knack for the bop. "Be Fine" has a beat that is immediately infectious and a bridge that allows you to just float along with him. The music on Good Faith is really nice, but it also feels dated. If this record came out in the late 2000s it would have been and instant smash, but now it just sorta feels like Madeon is stuck in the same gear. It may give us an idea of why this record took so long to release. He has been working with quite a few pop acts producing for them, but in that time it seems like the center of pop culture has moved past his palate.

The couplet of "Nirvana" and "Mania" is in a word: muddy. You can see the vibes He is trying to harness, but they never quite manifest the way He seems to want them too. At times the album slips into build drop build drop and just kind of refuses to leave it. I kept waiting for something to pull me around something to entice or excite but damn they just never materialize. It's not like this album promises something it doesn't deliver, it's just that the promise it does give is not a promising one. "Miracle" features this gospel vocal at the end, clearly someone other than Madeon singing and it;s just so out of place. That is sort of how this album feels, it may have been a hit five years ago, but I'm not sure of that either. It's nice that Good Faith doesn't continue the trend of dark EDM, but it also doesn't do much else. One shining moment is the explosion of horns on "Hold Me Just Because" as the song comes to a close. I want to love this record, I want to hold it tight because we get so little from Madeon, but it's just not there.

6.3 out of 10