Album Of The Week: Model/Actriz Pirouette

The way Cole Haden commands a stage, you might not guess the band he fronts sounds anything quite like Model/Actriz. The Brooklyn quartet broke through with their 2023 debut Dogsbody, a haunting, gnarly update on aughts dance-punk replete with piercing feedback and industrial flourishes that often took the forefront. "A body count higher than a mosquito," he proclaimed on album highlight "Mosquito," likening the pursuit of sex to something as nagging as a seemingly inescapable, blood-sucking parasite. But in spite of the grating noise and graphic lyrics of Dogsbody, Haden doesn’t assume his role in Model/Actriz quite like a Trent Reznor or a David Yow. He’s more like... well, did you see Lady Gaga’s "Abracadabra" video?

Growing up as a queer late-millennial in Delaware, Haden found solace in the face-forward pop of '90s divas like Britney Spears and Mariah Carey. Later, artsier performers like Gaga and Grace Jones would also influence what became his striking onstage persona, in turn helping earn Model/Actriz -- which also comprises bassist Aaron Shapiro, drummer Ruben Radlauer, and guitarist Jack Wetmore -- a reputation as some of New York’s chicest punks. (Noted queer-rock fan Miley Cyrus even tapped in, enlisting Haden for a co-write on her own upcoming album.) They frequently draw equally vibrant crowds to their raucous, immersive live shows, blurring the lines between entertainer and spectator. However, even with Haden being as bold and emphatic as he is, the cacophonous noise-rock instrumentals of Dogsbody at times threatened to overshadow him. But on Model/Actriz’s new album Pirouette, out this Friday, the audience for his vaudevillian, cabaret-inspired tendencies extends far beyond the lot of small rooms that pop up around each L train station. With Pirouette, the world is his stage, and he acts as such.

Haden dives right into his life story on Pirouette’s lead single, the insistent, beckoning "Cinderella," on which he plainly recalls wanting to have a princess-themed birthday party as a young child before nixing the idea, presumably due to some external shame: "Changed my mind/ I was quiet, alone, and devastated," he deadpans over a house shuffle. Now, he argues, he’s more comfortable with toying with the gender binary: "You make me want to be ready/ I feel different now than I did before," he coos on the strutting chorus, its sinister, staccato guitar riffs lifted from the Big Black playbook. As the accompanying party-set music video indicates, "Cinderella" provides Pirouette’s setting: the journey of growing into yourself authentically even when the odds are stacked against you.

Part of what makes Pirouette feel so immediate and unnerving is that you get the sense Haden has been waiting to make this record for a long, long time. On the stark spoken-word interlude "Headlights," Haden recounts the story of his first crush on another boy and being too nervous to ever confess: "Over time I started hating him, or I started hating myself," he admits, further substantiating his apparent fascination with the dark side of desire. Some of the most memorable lines come on the atmospheric closer "Baton": "I've said, 'There’s nothing to write'/ Which I regret is dishonest/ I’ve said, 'I'm waiting to live through something meaningful'/ While I still can avoid exposing what I've experienced/ You've always seen the geyser in me as a fountain." There’s a natural tension that inevitably builds when you've kept your honest self suppressed, and on Pirouette, Haden tracks his own personal growth -- let's stick with the geyser metaphor -- from the moment the water starts to boil to when the steam finally erupts. "It's a coming out story," Haden has said of the record. "The person I am now is much, much gentler to myself than the person I was writing Dogsbody."

You can sense that gentler approach on "Doves," the first song Haden wrote for Pirouette. Here, he writes about how keeping himself closeted started to feel more like a restrictive cage than the safe sanctuary he thought he’d built by withholding the truth. "Audience," then, seems to reckon with the disjointed feeling of keeping up such an act, while on the suspenseful "Departures" he begins to evolve into what he finds to be a more genuine form of himself: "I zip into my platforms/ I slide into my skirt/ Pull the straps around my shoulders/ Pull the rouge out of my purse." On the more outward-facing side of the spectrum is "Diva," where Haden contemplates the characters he meets while on tour -- a gay guy in Copenhagen who has a girlfriend, another guy he stayed out with all night in Amsterdam -- while also contemplating how indie stardom plays into his dating life now: "You could call me a small business owner/ Living in America, while trapped in the body of an operatic diva."

Pirouette is intensely personal, so much so that it can pique discomfort either in its occasional abrasiveness or in the conflicting emotions. Few bands could pull of the back-to-back sequencing of "Departures," which feels like the combined scent of sweat, poppers, and fog machines, and "Acid Rain," a folkier love song of sorts that Haden wrote for his grandmother ("I sing in part because you often/ Told me that you liked to listen"). Though Model/Actriz exist in a sonic lane almost entirely of their own, what makes it so resonant is in the contrasts: soft-sung confessions atop metallic percussion, an unmistakable air of tenderness against the smoke and mirrors of braggadocious masculinity. "This is EXACTLY what I want queer music to sound like in 2025," reads one of the top YouTube comments under the "Cinderella" video, with over 200 digital thumbs-up in agreement. Haden states his own cravings clearly enough on "Departures": "All I want is to be beautiful," he swoons. If Pirouette is any indication, he can be that and much more.

Pirouette is out 5/2 via True Panther/Dirty Hit.

Model/Actriz - Pirouette [LP]

25.98

Amazon

Other albums of note out this week:
• Car Seat Headrest's The Scholars
• Yung Lean's Jonatan
• PUP's Who Will Look After The Dogs?
• Jenny Hval's Iris Silver Mist
• Lucius' Lucius
• Propagandhi's At Peace
• Mei Semones' Animaru
• Pyramids' Pythagoras
• Blondshell's You Asked For A Picture
• Eli Winter's A Trick Of The Light
• Esther Rose's Want
• Club Night's Joy Coming Down
• Eli Keszler's Eli Keszler
• Suzanne Vega's Flying With Angels
• Two Shell's Little Idiots
• Pet Symmetry's Big Symmetry
• Thanya Iyer's TIDE/TIED
• GBMystical's Wannabe
• Lael Neale's Altogether Stranger
• Key Glock's Glockaveli
• The Farm's Let The Music (Take Control)
• Crematory's Destination
• Samantha Crain's Gumshoe
• Shearling's Motherfucker, I Am Both: "Amen" And "Hallelujah"...
• Teether & Kuya Neil's YEARN IV
• Press Club's To All The Ones That I Love
• Max Walker's Chronostasis
• Låpsley's I'M A HURRICANE I'M A WOMAN IN LOVE
• Sextile's yes, please.
• Froglord's Metamorphosis
• Sally Potter's ANATOMY
• Big Thief member James Krivchenia's Performing Belief
• Jolie Laide's Creatures
• Brett Newski & The Bad Inventions' ameriCONa Pt. 1: Educate Freeloaders To Buy Art
• Chloe Flower's I Love Me More
• Various Artists' Eccentric Soul: The Linco Label
• Rainy Miller’s Joseph, What Have You Done?
• Eric Shorter's Shorter Bendian Shields
• Sentries' Gem Of The West
• Sinemis' Farewell
• Pet Shop Boys' Dreamworld: The Greatest Hits Live At The Royal Arena Copenhagen
• Acres' The Host
• Paco Cathcart's Down On Them
• Turnover's Peripheral Vision 10th Anniversary Edition
• Adult Jazz's Gist Is 10
• Josh Groban's Gems
• Xiao's Control
• Wolves At The Gate's Wasteland
• Surgeon's Shell~Wave
• PUNK CRUSH's FERAL
• Gashi's The Killah Whales Of Gotham
• Bleed's Bleed
• KiNG MALA's And You Who Drowned In The Grief Of A Golden Thing
• Sammyfunk's We Are Sammyfunk
• fallfiftyfeet's Counterfeit Recollections
• Briston Maroney’s Jimmy
• Eric Church's Evangeline Vs. The Machine
• Real Estate's The Wee Small Hours
• Angel Bat Dawid & Naima Nefertari's Journey To Nabta Playa
• Tiny Vipers' Illusionz Vol. 1 (1997-2004)
• Anthony Naples' Scanners
• BIIG Time's 200K
• Fielded's Chuckles Deluxe
• Isaiah Falls' LVRS Paradise
• AURORA's What Happened To The Heart? (Deluxe)
• Real Bad Man & Boldy James' Conversational Pieces
• Bryce Vine's Motel California
• Aly & AJ's Silver Deliverer
• Knotted Wood's Knotted Wood
• Puddle Of Mudd's Kiss The Machine
• Dope Lemon's Golden Wolf
• Le Pain's Dirge Technique
• loscil's Lake Fire
• Lights' A6
• Pink Breath Of Heaven's Colors Make A Sound
• Chemtrails Oslo's Stein Olav Måkestad
• Bladee's Ste The Beautiful Martyr 1st Attempt EP
• Flume & JPEGMAFIA’s We Live In A Society EP
• Ro$ama's Orange Tape EP
• Panik Flower's rearview EP
• Super Market's Shopping List EP
• Say Sue Me's Time Is Not Yours EP
• Teens In Trouble & Bat Boy's Split EP
• NewDad's Safe EP
• Punchbag's I’m Not Your Punchbag EP
• Sophia Warren's Adesso EP
• Ember Knight's Ember Sings The Dr Bronner Soap Label EP
• Hardy's COUNTRY! EP