More or less every word written on these pages about Model/Actriz’s 2023 debut album, Dogsbody, was a reference to noise rock, post-punk, and industrial experimental touchstones from a more recent yesterday that helped blazed the path leading into their present-future. That’s not to say that the Brooklyn four-piece sounded reductive by any means — more so, it was complimentary and evidence that they were fully capable of furthering its spirit — but if there were ever a “FFO: Xiu Xiu, Liars, and YVETTE” sticker that could be slapped across that LP’s front cover, then you’d have done a pretty damn good job at targeting the general audience who’d be very into them upon discovery. Pirouette takes a bow as Model/Actriz’s own artistic design all the way through, however.

When people discuss albums that point to where an artist comes into their own, they are talking about albums like the band’s sophomore follow-up — a dance-exclamatory execution on New York City’s underground rock scene. The way the listen maneuvers through the dark using a finessed skillset of club pop blurs the industrial complex as a meeting place used in tandem for a noise show and a rave, made all the more complimentary to its energy of it being a “coming out story” written by vocalist Cole Haden. Through the magic of his own twisted up version of a queer fairy tale, he doesn’t necessarily find his prince, but he at least he finds his own authenticity in front of the audience across many parts of sound exploration.

Its opening trifecta of “Vespers”, “Cinderella”, and “Poppy” palpitate into the currents of electronic music despite there not being a synthesizer in ear’s shot. Rather, a dazzling mirror ball sparkles against the staccato of Jack Wetmore’s guitar while drummer Ruben Radlauer and bassist Aaron Shapiro temper desire’s rising pulse as it is confounding in alternative fashion. They’re putting listeners’ flexibility and cardio endurance to the test here right off the bat, essentially asking how hard you want to dance to a noise rock album that moves with the essence of Black Dice as if it were fronted by a theater performer who’s been waiting for this moment in the spotlight their entire life.

Haden’s got the stories to make it a show as well. On “Diva”, he recounts tour tales of a gay guy in Copenhagen who had a girlfriend and bar hookup from Amsterdam, proclaiming himself a “small business owner living in America, while trapped in the body of an operatic diva” with as much “Vogue” poses as there are in the band’s muscular flex. “Headlights” and the anti-folk of “Acid Rain” homage old friends/unrequited crushes on friend’s of friends and the voices of loved ones with much more eloquent spoken word and lyricism that can be done with justice in this space, though a broken up Jamie Stewart would certainly approve. At its tail end, “Doves” is arguably the closest the quartet have come to date in allowing themselves to become uncaged under the cooler light of explicit pop.

“I’ve said ‘there’s nothing to write”, which I regret is dishonest,” begins to sing in the opening moments of the album’s final, collapsing surge, “Baton”. This fountain of brutally vulnerable personal narratives aren’t the only thing we’re discovering had been held back from us. This is Model/Actriz’ real, multi-dimensional self as loud, ostentatiously noisy dance rock and experimental performance art finally coming out to the whole world, too.

Highlights: “Cinderella”, “Diva”, “Acid Rain”

Model/Actriz’s Pirouette is now available on True Panther / Dirty Hit.

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