A gray winter Monday morning is usually the farthest we find ourselves from the kaleidoscopic warmth of nightlife, but Model/Actriz are taking us back to the dance floor in all senses beyond the physical.
The Boston-born, Brooklyn-based post-punk noise collective dropped new single “Cinderella” just before the weekend hit, and this kinetic bundle of gritty dance-punk energy will be featured on the quartet’s new album Pirouette, out May 2 via True Panther Records here in North America. The record is the follow-up to 2023’s Dogsbody, and was co-produced and mixed by Seth Manchester and mastered by Matt Colton at Pawtucket’s Machines With Magnets.
The video for “Cinderella,” directed by Nathan Castiel, brings the fairy tale theme to life with a re-imagination that delivers it to the present day, with Model/Actriz’s Cole Haden in the role of the eponymous character.
“’Cinderella’ distills within it many of the objectives that would become the lifeblood of Pirouette,” says Haden. “The song switches between moments of tension and fluidity, dissonance and harmony: We aimed to write something with an inherent brightness that differed anything we had made before, and the light that shines through the song was made not through removing darkness, but through upping the contrast. The lyrics were written in response to that canvas, and give voice to an inner dialogue I once had while on a date with a beautiful man. It’s a song about the realization that there was shame and pain I carried long after it had become obsolete.”
Model/Actriz take the new beats out on the road for some spring treats, and included in the tour is a May 19 romp at Deep Cuts in Medford. Step into “Cinderella” below.