On Their Exhilarating New Album ‘Pirouette,’ Model/Actriz Take Their Biggest Swing Yet

When executed correctly, a pirouette in ballet is somehow both graceful and powerful, delicate and muscular. So it isn’t hard to understand why the band Model/Actriz used it for the title of their second album, out today. Every one of the 11 tracks is a thrilling exercise in controlled chaos: the pummeling kick drum and relentless forward motion of a silvery guitar on opening track “Vespers,” the clattering percussion and preening lyrics of “Diva,” the whirling electric fuzz and meticulously calibrated call-and-response of “Departures.” And just like watching a prima ballerina fly into a high-stakes pirouette and stick the landing, the effect is dazzling.

Lead singer Cole Haden—whose electric stage presence and lyrics probing the nuances of queer life have helped establish the band as an unmissable live act—first met his fellow bandmates, drummer Ruben Radlauer and guitarist Jack Wetmore, while studying at the Berklee College of Music in 2016, and after a two-year hiatus, they regrouped in 2019 with the addition of bassist Aaron Shapiro. In 2023, they released their debut album, Dogsbody—an explosive, eardrum-blasting sonic cocktail of punky, dancey noise rock—before steadily building their fanbase through nearly two years of touring. With Pirouette, it feels like the band is finally poised to hit the big leagues.

The album also marks a subtle sonic pivot, as the band leans further into their pop instincts and Haden’s knack for a cheeky, winking lyric. (“I’m such a fucking bitch, girl, you don’t even know / Just imagine me absolutely soaked, dripping head to toe in Prada Sport,” he growls, with delectable disdain, on “Diva.”) The lead single “Cinderella”—which came accompanied by a video relocating the titular fairytale to contemporary Brooklyn, the ball substituted for a queer rave, and three of the bandmates dressed up as Ugly Stepsisters—served as something of a mission statement for Model/Actriz’s new era, blending their signature raucous sound with irresistible pop hooks (Haden cited, somewhat surprisingly, Janet Jackson and Kylie Minogue as inspirations) and lyrics suggesting a newfound candor around the subjects of sex, shame, and the soul. “With the instrumentation and our style, it would be hard, I think, to really recognize that Kylie played as much of a role on the record as she did,” says Haden. “But I was just listening to music that I grew up with, and things that made me feel sentimental and tender, because I knew that I wanted the music to be very vulnerable and personal to me.”