I didn’t know much about Model / Actriz before seeing them at the 2025 Levitation Music Festival, but I was instantly hooked by their frenetic, passionate live performance and their wild post-punk / electro-disco sound. I immediately bopped over to their merch booth after their set to buy their newest full-length album Pirouette.
“Vespers” opens the album. Vespers, in case you’re unaware, are prayers usually conducted at the end of a day for reflection of that day’s events (and your role and God’s role in them) and typically said before an evening mass. It is coincidence that Pirouette‘s cover appears to be an ornate gate – perhaps opening to a sacred place? Vocalist Cole Haden sings, here and elsewhere on the album, about his reconciliation with his faith growing up (“It’s all the days I carved in crimson streaks.”) and his embracing of his sexuality (“God gave me poise enough for the sharing. Claim that look, match that speed, claim that room.”)/.
On “Cinderella,” Jack Wetmore‘s guitar almost sets off a panic while Ruben Radlauer‘s acoustic and electric drums hit with wild disco abandon and Haden tells a tale of finding his true self. “Poppies” contains a central theme to the album in its lyrics: “As flesh is made in marble, as marble captures softness, as softness holds a violence within a pure expression.” The first two parts of that quote appear in large script in the middle of the liner notes.
Aaron Shapiro‘s bass on “Diva” will rumble your seat, while Haden’s whispered vocals on “Headlights” will make you sit still and pay attention. “Acid Rain” has Haden admiring the speed, grace, and weightlessness of hummingbirds and wondering if he could emulate them and leave behind cares and dwell in beauty all day. The heavy beats of “Departures” and “Audience” rush back and forth between dark house, krautrock, and industrial.
Speaking of industrial tracks, you can’t get much more machine-heavy than “Ring Road,” which is about being willing to spin a car into a whirlwind so you can forget everything and just be in one place for a little while. “Doves” seems to be another spiritual metaphor (The Holy Spirit coming down like a dove onto Christ? Haden embracing how the Creator made him?) and yet another track you’ll blast late nights on empty roads.
“Baton” closes the album. A baton can be something you pass on to the person ahead of you in the race, and Haden musing over the man he’s become and how “it can feel strange knowing I’ve been a person.” Leaving behind one life and embracing another can be intimidating to say the least, but Model / Actriz’s combined talents build the song into brightness in the second half, fading us out on a hopeful note.
It’s a sharp record from a band currently taking the world by storm. Like its title, it can make you spin with wild speed or subtle grace.
Keep your mind open.
[I’ll feel like Cinderella at the ball if you subscribe.]
