Model/Actriz – ‘Swan Songs’ EP review: An evocative surprise
Swans are a recurring motif on Swan Songs, the surprise EP dropped earlier this week by the Brooklyn rock quartet Model/Actriz. In one song, we envision spending a Friday “at the swan lake”, while in another, the wind echoes like “the hissing of swans.” These creatures are at once beautiful and menacing, an apt comparison to Model/Actriz’s sound.
The Skinny: Arriving less than a year after their sophomore album, 2025’s Pirouette, the Swan Songs EP is an unexpected, yet welcome, gift. In a statement to go along with the EP release, frontman Cole Haden states, “Swan Songs is a capsule of experiments made in the aftermath of the Pirouette sessions that by chance formed this moody vignette that we’re happy to share.”
Certainly, the three songs act as a sort of B-side offering to Pirouette’s vision, an album that heard their unique art-punk dance melodies communicated with an intensity like never before. With Swan Songs, Model/Actriz give us a glimpse at what comes next: a familiar sensation met with tenderness.
Opening with ‘Glassman,’ an onslaught of industrial beats rattle like a mounting pressure in your eardrums. A steady dance rhythm is shocked with sudden bursts of energy, in muddled dissonant chords and drums mashed together, producing a throttling chaos that jolts the production one way and then the next.
Such thrashes of sound contrast the sentiment in Haden’s lyrics: an ode to a weekend spent with a lover, lying on the beach, idyllic and joyous as the two are removed from the outside world. “This perfect day I’m witnessing,” Haden repeats, “I can’t wait to tell my friends about it.” The song builds into a full rush of abandon, as the production gives into the consumptive nature of the love story, a nightmarish romanticism that defines the entirety of Swan Songs.
‘Thank You By Dido’ – named for the repeated sequence of sitting in a car, listening to the radio play Dido’s song in between foreign commercials – is full of whispery vocals and humming instrumentals. ”We were tethered nowhere,” Haden recalls, “But each other’s hands.” While it is the most mellow of the three on Swan Songs, the song still reverberates with a lingering sadness, capturing the emotion of leaving someone behind. In the closing lines, Haden’s voice slightly shakes, as though holding back tears.
The final of the Swan Songs is ‘Majesty,’ Haden’s vocals open with a Gothic croon, slightly muffled to give way to the mesmerising percussions that drive the melodies forward, building upon each other like a steady climb towards an ominous unknown. Industrial tones combine with dance rhythms to amplify the song’s story, which grapples with the opposing sensations of success and burden. “I turned what came to me into a promise: I would find it,” Haden declares, as he contemplates shouldering the weight of triumph against the emotional toil.
“If I was an angel who chose to return,” he considers, “Then I must believe Heaven isn’t enough.”
Standout Track: ‘Glassman’
The Verdict: Swan Songs is a glorious surprise from one of rock’s most exhilarating outfits. A bookend from their Pirouette era’s extravagant gloom, the three songs serve as a reminder of why Model/Actriz’s evolution remains most compelling.
Release Date: March 23rd, 2026 | Producer: Seth Manchester | Label: True Panther Records
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