“T’es bloquée dans mon cœur, es-ce qu’un jour tu partiras?” (You stole my heart, yet will you leave me one day?) As the lyrics imply, a meeting also signifies a parting. Adèle Castillon and Matthieu Reynaud, the members of Videoclub, a French musical project group formed in 2018, released their first and last album Euphories in January 2021. Videoclub’s French aesthetic songs brimming with love stories and harmonious voices came to an end after three years, due to the breakup of their romantic relationship. Expressing the moments of ardent love to loneliness through music, Euphories narrates the story of Adèle and Matthieu’s relationship from the beginning to the end.

From the Beginning

The journey of Videoclub started with Adèle and Matthieu’s decision to form a duo after meeting for the first time through their mutual friend. Their relationship began when Adèle was an actress and Matthieu produced music with the help of his father who was a musician. Composing songs of the electropop genre, they gained popularity with “Amour Plastique,” accumulating 101 million YouTube views as recorded in November 2022. In addition, The Indiependent, an art review magazine, viewed their songs as “a cohesive collection of 80’s inspired, throwback European electronics, youthful and charming, reminiscent of childhood, coming of age fears and young romance.”

Euphories consists of 13 unique songs, for which most of them Matthieu participated in composing and producing. The album demonstrates the diverse range of music styles that the duo can cover, including synthpop electronic keyboard and French chansons. The listeners hear a heartbeat rhythm underlying the album, as the pace is tailored to tune with the basic mood of each song. In particular, “Trois jours” follows a lullaby of a soft rhythm that suits a late-night chill, while “Euphories” encompasses faster rhythms.

To the End

It was March 31, 2021, when Matthieu announced that he would be leaving the Videoclub due to the duo’s breakup. With the end of their relationship, songs in Euphories began to unfold stories of coming of age, in retrospect of the young and premature days. The seamless transition between songs builds a narrative, resembling chapters in a book or scenes of a movie. In the song, “Roi,” translated as king, Matthieu’s distinct vocal singing over the lyrics creates a sense of enumerating love letters to the audience. For instance, he recites “J’ai un peu envie d’te revoir—c’est étranger, moi aussi.” (I miss you again—That’s funny, me too.)

Despite the breakup, songs and stories in Euphories are not stained with tragic ending credits, provoking the bygone memories of the past. As revealed by the title Euphories, originating from the word euphoria meaning “a feeling of intense happiness,” the album mainly portrays the blissful moments of the romantic couple. Moreover, as Videoclub finishes the last song, the listeners can find the signs of how the two managed to overcome her sorrows as if she categorized her teenage love recollections in her life. In their last song “SMS”, the listeners may hear their recollections of happy days. “Je veux relire nos SMS. Peux-tu redire toutes ces promesses?” (I want to read our SMS again. Can you repeat all these promises?)

In one of the tracks titled “Impala,” Adèle shows her solid determination to end their young, love story, whose honest lyrics entail loneliness yet the ongoing life after the breakup. Although the relationship has come to an end, Adèle sublimed her despairs through music. As Euphories well identified the two singers’ musical talents, their promising future awaits them. Though it is now hardly possible to listen to their couplets, music listeners will eagerly anticipate their aesthetic voice from their songs, hoping to continue to hear their voices. The duo finishes their couplet here, however, Euphories will remain as a chapter of their origin stories.