“Cinderella”

How did Cinderella feel meeting the prince? When he slid that glass slipper on, did he look right through her? “Cinderella,” the standout lead single from Model/Actriz’s forthcoming new album, Pirouette, is a fairytale too: frontman Cole Haden’s story of becoming the kind of person who can admit their childhood dream of a Cinderella birthday party on a first date. The five-year-old Cole backed out, nascently aware of what guests might think of a little boy in a big blue dress. But tonight those old defenses are breaking down: “I’m embarrassed to be clever when you’re honest,” he sings, riding the ratcheting intensity of Model/Actriz’s best songs to build to the kind of full-eye-contact vulnerability that makes their live shows so arresting. Haden finally gets his theme party, too, in a creative video production retelling the story as a night out in Bushwick, with his three bandmates as evil stepsisters, rats crawling fucking everywhere, and a shirtless prince who’s a DJ. Model/Actriz pop choreography? Baby, life’s a ball.