Model/Actriz, a weird post-punk/noise rock group now based in New York, has had a mysterious allure to them since they started getting recognition in 2019. Their music is dark and frenetic and often has heavy undertones of lyrical queerness, really separating them from a pretty hetero-dominated genre. The latest single, “Cinderella,” is quite similar in vibe (think of an evil club) to much of the content on their debut album Dogsbody. Still, the visual narrative video, by Nathan Castiel, puts it in another universe.
Using the fairytale of Cinderella as a metaphor and literal embodiment for a man who, as a child, wished he had a “Cinderella birthday party” gives the whole song a sincere quality. But the video itself is like a modern fever-dream adaptation of the fairytale. Lead vocalist Cole Haden plays the role of Cinderella while going through the many toils of the character before he meets his fairy godmother, and they attend a darkened rave. Taxidermied rats follow the story and some Lynchian-style Prince’s Henchman characters. Is it a happy ending? Who’s to say? “Cinderella” comes before Model/Actriz’s follow-up album, Pirouette, in May.
