Madeon’s New Album ‘Victory’ Marks His Boldest Period But: Hear

Madeon has released his long-awaited album Victory, turning a turbulent chapter of his life into his most electrifying album yet.

The French electronic music icon, whose real name is Hugo Leclercq, was working on a different project before personal upheaval inspired a creative reset. During a recent interview with Zane Lowe of Apple Music Radio 1, he said he started Victory at a time when his personal life “felt like a mess.”

In an Instagram livestream on the day he announced Victory, Leclercq described scrapping an earlier album as part of a “greater master plan,” but kept the details close to his chest. He also set expectations for Victory, mentioning that there was “a lot of stuff (he) wouldn’t have done on Good Faith” and that even the songs that sound happier “have a layer of darkness to them if you pay attention.”

He delivers on that promise with Victory, which is angrier, faster and more cathartic than anything we’ve heard from Madeon in quite some time. It’s the necessary counterpart to Good Faith: where that album was the patient reclamation of joy after depression, this one is what happens when that equilibrium shatters.

The cover of Madeon’s third album, Victory.Credit: Mom+Pop

The album kicks off with ‘Hi!,’ charging out of the gate with Mikey Freedom Hart of Bleachers, whose guitar is felt immediately. “It’s urgent laptop rock,” Madeon said of the album’s lead single. “It has to be right now. I love this music so much cause I didn’t expect it, it kind of erupted.”

‘Car Crash Baby’ follows and channels the frantic energy of early 2000s indietronica, with lyrics equal parts cynical and wounded: “I better fix my face, brighten my eyes / I talk a big, big game, but it’s all a lie / I pray they’re gonna love me, I don’t wanna die.” Together, the two pre-release singles made clear last year that this era would sound like nothing Madeon had done before. ‘Super Platinum’ takes that a step further alongside Erick The Architect of Flatbush Zombies, who drops guttural hip-hop verses into Madeon’s driving grooves.

At the album’s softest, an impassioned vocal floats over an uplifting guitar melody in ‘Dancing On Your Grave,’ flashing some of the technicolor intimacy of Good Faith inside Victory‘s electro-punk chaos. ‘Somebody Else’ carries that feeling into the record’s most soaring moment, with breathy vocals and lyrics that wrestle with the complicated hope of moving on and choosing to let go, even when it costs something: “The day I ever want to love again / I hope you meet somebody else / You should do it.”

Swinging hard in the other direction, ‘Fire Away’ with Slayyyter is a brooding, chugging anthem that frames heartbreak as an all-out war. That combative energy carries into ‘Chaos Magic,’ a blunt track built on jagged guitar riffs and a pounding beat. “You’ll pay for the ending of my youth,” Leclercq snarls, pushing the anger past heartbreak into outright revenge.

‘Enjoy’ is a gleefully produced yet lyrically manipulative song whose sound feels almost weightless after the record’s heavier cuts: “I’m a man who can make up a lie / You’ll believe for the rest of your life.” It segues into the final pre-release single ‘Red Jacket,’ a fuzzed-out, propulsive track where Madeon and Sam Gellaitry reckon with the inevitability of change.

Closing the album, ‘Lonely Space Age’ dissolves the electro‑punk intensity into sweeping ambient synths and a bedroom‑pop vocal texture. For a while, it leans into what feels like the embrace of Good Faith again. Then that warmth fades and the track ends with a darker, uneasy coda that feels like a final nod to the album’s “layer of darkness.”

Those who want to experience the album live can purchase tickets to Madeon’s 31-date ‘Victory Live Tour,’ kicking off September 24th in Portland before wrapping November 21st at Chicago’s Radius. The virtuosic visual team behind ‘Good Faith Forever’ will be returning to support the tour.

Victory is out now via Mom+Pop Music. You can listen to the new album below and find it on streaming platforms here.