Exuding glamour, spectacle and pathos, Model/Actriz create a ferocious mix of industrial rock, dance-punk and pop that’s often sexy and disturbing in the same breath. After breaking out in 2023 with debut album Dogsbody, the New York four-piece spent 2024 touring relentlessly, likely leaving every stage they played slicked with a mixture of sweat and blood. Their forthcoming follow-up record, Pirouette, is their first for British independent label Dirty Hit.
Lead single Cinderella is a remarkable, teeth-gnashing reintroduction to their sound: a brutalising song about, in part, lead singer Cole Haden’s desire to have a Cinderella-themed birthday party when he was five. This is quintessential Model/Actriz, blending manic, menacing grooves with steely-eyed flamboyance and needling openness. The band – Haden, Ruben Radlauer, Aaron Shapiro and Jack Wetmore – formed in 2016, and it’s their sense of gay transgression and avowed diva worship, brought to the band by Haden, that separates them from the scores of punk-adjacent rock acts on the rise.
Pirouette is punchier, more willing to sink its teeth in, than Dogsbody, and allows for moments of softness too, such as the forlorn spoken-word track Headlights or delicate ballad Acid Rain. It will almost definitely beef up an already killer live show, but if you can’t catch it, Model/Actriz still bring immense spectacle to their records.
Pirouette is out on 2 May via Dirty Hit. Model/Actriz play Outbreak festival in London and Manchester, 13-15 June
