Model/Actriz’s debut album, 2023’s Dogsbody, blended dance music and noise rock, creating something both overwhelming and infectious. Walls of noisy guitar – which, at a point on the song ‘Maria’, sound like someone being beaten up – coexist with punchy basslines and a drum machine. As lead singer Cole Haden put it in an interview with SPIN at the time of release, “I’ve been told it gives people panic attacks at the gym”. It was equally harrowing lyrically, chronicling an abusive relationship with honesty and, at points, relish.
So, where could they go from here? The answer, blasted in your face on their upcoming sophomore record Pirouette, is to turn everything up to eleven. The beats are even dancier, the guitars noisier. Most significantly, Haden as a songwriter also feels like he’s come into his own. While on Dogsbody he comes across as dominated and controlled by his partner, here he comes into his own. The album sees Haden expressing his sexuality with a tad more pride: as the album bio puts it, Haden shows “he grew into the diva he once worshipped growing up as a queer kid”. On ‘Diva’, Haden sings “I met a guy in Amsterdam, closed the bar down, and then I kissed him” alongside all-consuming instrumentation which somehow perfectly captures the feeling of being on a sweaty, hedonistic night out.
Similarly, on the lead single, the excellent ‘Cinderella’, he sings “I feel different now than I did before, I can see how my power only was my fear of betrayal”. This triumphant tone channels the intensity of the band’s sound into a different direction than on their first album, with Haden seeming in control of the noise rather than consumed by it. Another notable change is that he sings more. On Dogsbody he largely alternated between spoken word and screaming. Now, he’s almost over-singing the choruses to many of the tracks, though the verses are often deadpan spoken word.
Meanwhile, the instrumentation can only be described as maximalist. On ‘Poppy’ the drum machine is so intense that it cuts off while the guitars are jagged, fast and minimalist, with the same tone repeated. This contrasts with the poppier elements, namely a wind-chime-like sound that’s scattered through the song, and Haden’s lyrics that are all the more catchy for the way they are sung. The opening song ‘Vespers’ is similar, with a chorus straight out of an early 2010s pop song paired with a dance drum loop, fast synths and harsh sounds.
‘Acid Rain’ strips back the noise elements, but retains a strong bassline to prevent stagnation. It’s one of the highlights of the album, sounding nostalgic and romantic in contrast with the tracks around it. Things roar back to life on ‘Departures’, where sung and spoken word vocals seem in conversation – the former romantic, the latter direct. This constant tonal change is matched in the instrumentation, with the band’s typically intense style during the spoken word parts dropping away for the sung sections.
Pirouette is not a perfect album, though. On the second single ‘Doves’, Haden’s vocals seem incongruous with the instrumentation. It’s a credit that this doesn’t happen more often given the unique blend of genres exhibited and adapted by the band, although its maximalism does lose effect as the album draws on. It may broken up by ‘Acid Rain’, and other tracks like the almost instrument-less ‘Headlights’ and the slower-paced closer ‘Baton’, yet the intensity does grow tiring by the end.
Nevertheless, this is still an excellent record. It represents a step forward from Dogsbody while remaining true to the established Model/Actriz formula. Haden cuts a much more confident figure at the centre of it all, and his newfound self-confidence makes the album a fundamentally more fun listen. It’s also worth noting that he stands out as a proudly gay frontman, ever more confident in discussing his sexuality in a genre where romantic expression is not very common. LGBTQ+ music is often shunted into primarily pop or dance and, while Model/Actriz do borrow from both, their heavier sound presents an alternate version of queer expression without in any way tarnishing its previous existence. Pirouette is out via Dirty Hit on May 2nd.
