🔗 Share this article Jade Review: Pop's Most Unique Star Rises Above TV-Created Origins With the exception of Harry Styles, individual artistic journeys of former members of TV talent show-manufactured bands rarely capture the audience's attention. These efforts typically adhere to certain rules – either an attempt at a toughened-up R&B sound, complete with at least a track including a guest appearance by an US hip-hop artist, or a move into mature Radio 2-friendly polished adult contemporary – and they typically become a dimly remembered placeholder, the visual and auditory experience of someone gamely killing time before the inevitable band comeback concerts. A Unique Journey It’s a state of affairs that renders the unconventional route thus far followed by former Little Mix member Jade Thirlwall oddly invigorating. She’s certainly not above engaging in the typical activities that former talent show band members are known for undertaking, including emphatically stating that she's free from the press-managed restrictions of the factory-produced music business – judging by tonight’s crowd, the most popular item on the official goods stand is a handheld cooling device displaying the legend “TINA SAYS YOU’RE A CUNT”, a song line from the track Gossip, her collaboration with electronic pair Confidence Man – but nevertheless, the music she’s opted to make is pop of a noticeably more intriguing stripe than usual. An Impressive First Single She opened her solo account with the previous year's excellent Angel Of My Dreams, a highly unusual, jarring and disjointed melange of grand emotional pop songs, noisy synthesisers and audio excerpts from Sandie Shaw’s Puppet On A String. As the set on her initial individual concert series proves, not every song on her first full-length release That’s Showbiz, Baby! is quite as interesting as that: the track Before You Break My Heart is extremely memorable, but it's equally standard-issue disco pop, driven by exactly the Supremes sample its title suggests; things are padded out with a cover of the Madonna classic Frozen that transforms into a musical compilation of nineties club anthems, from the track Pacific State by 808 State to Set You Free by N-Trance. Additional Fascinating Content However, there exists additional where Angel Of My Dreams came from. The song Headache combines an Abba-esque chorus with song sections that present a borderline atonal style of rhythmic music or are surrounded with cavernous echo. She offers the track Unconditional to her mother: it has a fabulous melody, early 80s syndrums, and powerful guitar riffs combined with metallic pounding beats. The song IT Girl surprisingly resurrects the musical aesthetic of early 00s electroclash, or rather the exciting variation of early 00s pop that was strongly inspired by electroclash, while the track Natural at Disaster begins like a piano ballad before unexpectedly swerving into a malevolent electronic grind. An Appealing Presence The artist on stage is a immensely likable, cheerily unvarnished presence: she declares, she announces at a certain moment, “shaking like a shitting dog”; giving a shoutout to her queer audience members, who are present in large numbers, she proposes thanking them by including a branded jockstrap to the merchandise booth. Future Possibilities It may well end the manner these kind of solo careers typically finish – the enmity towards former bandmate Jesy Nelson voiced within the song Natural at Disaster patched up, a media announcement to announce that the original group are reunited – but the reality that every attendee appear word-perfect as they sing along to a record that only came out a few weeks prior causes one to ponder. And should it occur, the final Angel Of My Dreams emphasizes that Thirlwall’s solo career is not destined to fade into the domain of the barely recalled interim project. Jade performs at the O2 Victoria Warehouse in the city of Manchester tonight and is traveling across the United Kingdom until 23 October.