The Prince

A leaner, meaner cousin to the Good Faith material, released standalone and built around a stuttering, almost aggressive vocal chop that behaves like a snare. The rhythm section is the star: a tight, slapping drum pattern with a lot of negative space, and a bassline that keeps dropping out mid-phrase to let the silence hit. Madeon's vocal is processed into a taunting, sing-song cadence, more attitude than melody, and it's one of the few times he sounds genuinely confrontational rather than wistful. The lyric plays with self-mythology and the discomfort of it — the "prince" figure is both a costume he's been handed and one he clearly enjoys wearing, and the song never fully decides whether it's a boast or a critique of boasting. Sonically it belongs to the late-2010s French touch revival, all filtered disco guitar ghosts and dry compression, but the rhythmic edits are unmistakably his: sample-slicing as percussion. Shorter and more disposable-feeling than his album work, and that's part of the appeal — a track meant to be dropped in a set, not contemplated. Good for the gym, for walking fast, for any moment you'd like to feel slightly more dangerous than you are.