supermodel* releases new mixtape ‘cupid!’

supermodel* drops his debut mixtape cupid!, a playful, poignant, and very summer-ready set of songs that trace the arc of doomed love via the charming slackerly sincerity of Los Angeles artist/producer Frankie Beanie. A continuous mix, the project swirls up sunny guitars, bursting breakbeats, casually catchy hooks, and half-sung vocals to create a sort of alt-pop that feels both familiar and new. It’s smart but not clever. Horny and romantic. Hopeful even when lost. And it’s yours to listen to now via Frankie’s label you can do it too*.

cupid! arrives alongside the new single ‘i’ll be there’. The previously unreleased opening track exemplifies the 10-song set’s gifts. Over upbeat drums and acoustic jangle, Frankie sweetly shoots his shot with a romantic interest who’s wasting her time on a wack dude and his sus friends. While the rapped-ish verses are full of winking humour, the chorus is earnest vintage pop-punk gold: “If you call me, I’ll be there / If you want it, don’t be scared / If you don’t know what you’re doing / Just stop and ask yourself, ‘What am I losing?’”

Frankie shared his thoughts on the project in full: “obviously if you listen to cupid! at face value it’s primarily a record about love, most of it coming from a breakup i went through last year. but my intention was not to make something sad, i wanted to make something that gave people what i was looking for in that time. i think really all we want deep down is connection, and to be understood. i hope people find that through this tape. a lot of conversations i had during the time of making it revolved around what my goals are with the supermodel* project, now that it’s a year in. what i found is that my real goal is to make supermodel* something bigger than myself.”

Often recalling the gloriously unclassifiable production of the Dust Brothers (Beck, Beastie Boys, Hanson), cupid! is genre-agnostic and impressively cohesive. New Wave guitars and post-punk bass collide into hip-hop-kissed anti-folk on ‘superbad’. ‘87 mike jackson’ mixes beachy pop with noisy grunge. ‘dandelion’ is an R&B abstraction caught on sun-warped cassette tape.

Those aforementioned songs join previously released singles like the shambolic bop ‘blue monday’ a tribute to chasing love that isn’t meant to be, and June’s ‘adidas’, which Clash called “a deliciously dark post-breakup ode.” The latter came with a striking single-shot video directed by Frankie that caught him dancing out his feelings in a strobe-lit subway car.

And supermodel* kicked off the cupid! era with ‘cherry garcia’, which Travis Mills recently spun on Apple Music 1. The sticky, ’90s-coded cut about falling head over heels also arrived alongside a self-directed video, also complete with choreography (though he was rocking Timbs that time), that found Frankie working to win over a mostly unimpressed donut shop employee.

The project arrives in the midst of supermodel*’s UK/EU tour, with several dates and festival stops behind him. Up next are Denmark’s Syd for Solen, Sweden’s Way Out West, and Belgium’s Pukkelpop, plus headliners in Oslo and at London’s The George Tavern as part of Dork Magazine’s Big Dork Summer concert series. Frankie’s been posting short, doc-style recaps from stops along the way, including Czechia, London, the Netherlands, and Madrid. CONFIDENTIALLY, supermodel* will be playing London’s All Points East on August 28.

For those who caught it, supermodel* had one of the most unassumingly impressive videos of 2025 — for the project’s inaugural single ‘i used to live in england’ — in which Frankie more or less recreates Christopher Walken’s iconic dance from Fatboy Slim’s “Weapon of Choice” video, but in an abandoned-looking office space. The song itself is a hypnotic swirl of minimal dance-punk rhythms and razor-sharp cultural references — unguarded and often hilarious.

In October, Frankie collected the entire oeuvre to date on his supermodel* ep, including the fuzz-bomb ‘no future’ (which came with a DIY visual inspired by Jamiroquai’s famous ‘Virtual Insanity’ video) alongside emotionally revealing highlights like ‘your house’ and ‘my heart’. The sonically unpredictable six-song set signalled both a new beginning for Frankie, and also the culmination of a lifelong journey through punk, UK indie, hip-hop, and dance culture.

Born and raised in Front Royal, Virginia, Frankie played in high school punk bands before relocating to Liverpool, England, at age 18 in pursuit of a music degree he quickly lost interest in. While abroad, however, he co-founded an earlier outfit and stayed in it just long enough to learn what he really wanted (and also really didn’t want) to do. In 2024, he landed in L.A. and, after losing two day-jobs in a row, decided to put his all into what would become supermodel*.

Truly, on New Year’s Eve going into 2025, Frankie had what he’s called a real “movie-shit type moment” when he made a vow to scrap whatever he was holding onto and start something new. The Line of Best Fit documented that origin story in a deep-dive profile in December, but ever since, he’s been building out supermodel*’s world, including candid Tumblr posts and episodes of ‘cupid! Radio’ on SoundCloud. Aside from Frankie Beanie himself, what ties it all together are the rules of supermodel*, which can be found below along with the cupid! tracklist.

 

supermodel* live dates

Aug 13 – Copenhagen, Denmark @ Syd for Solen ^
Aug 14 – Oslo, Norway @ Revolver Upstairs *
Aug 15 – Gothenburg, Sweden @ Way Out West ^
Aug 21 – Hasselt, Belgium @ Pukkelpop ^
Aug 26 – London, England @ The George Tavern (Big Dork Summer) *
*CONFIDENTIAL* Aug 28 – London, England @ All Points East

* headliner
^ festival