Jade Review: The Music World's Quirkiest Artist Rises Above Manufactured Origins
Harry Styles aside, individual artistic journeys of former members of TV talent show-manufactured bands seldom grip the public imagination. These efforts typically adhere to predictable patterns – either an attempt at a toughened-up R&B sound, replete with at least one single featuring a guest appearance by an American rapper, or a lunge towards “grownup” Radio 2-friendly smooth pop-rock territory – and they usually amount to a barely recalled interim project, the sight and sound of someone enthusiastically passing the years prior to the unavoidable reunion tour.
A Unique Journey
It’s a state of affairs that renders the unconventional route thus far followed by Little Mix’s Jade Thirlwall oddly invigorating. She definitely participates in doing the kind of things that ex-reality TV group artists are known for undertaking, among them emphatically stating that she’s no longer subject the media-trained constraints of the factory-produced music business – based on the audience this evening, the most popular item on the merchandise stall is a fan displaying the phrase “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 music with a far more fascinating style than the norm.
An Impressive First Single
She opened her solo account with the previous year's excellent her debut single Angel Of My Dreams, a highly unusual, jarring and disjointed mixture of grand emotional pop songs, noisy synthesisers and samples from the classic track Puppet On A String by Sandie Shaw.
As the set on her initial individual concert series demonstrates, not everything on her first full-length release That’s Showbiz, Baby! is equally fascinating as that: Before You Break My Heart is insanely catchy, but it's equally typical dancefloor-oriented pop, powered by precisely the Motown musical snippet the name implies; things are padded out with a cover of the Madonna classic Frozen that transforms into a medley of 90s dance hits, from 808’s Pacific State to N-Trance’s Set You Free.
More Intriguing Material
But there’s also more material in the vein of Angel Of My Dreams. Headache combines an Abba-esque chorus with song sections that offer a borderline atonal brand of funk or are surrounded with cavernous echo. She dedicates Unconditional to her mum: it has a wonderful tune, early 80s syndrums, and crashing rock guitar combined with clanging industrial drums. IT Girl unexpectedly reanimates the musical aesthetic of 2000s electronic punk movement, or more accurately the exciting variation of early 00s pop that was heavily influenced by the electroclash genre, while Natural at Disaster begins like a piano ballad before suddenly shifting into a dark computerized noise.
An Appealing Presence
The artist on stage is a hugely appealing, delightfully authentic presence: she is, she announces at one point, “shaking like a shitting dog”; shouting out her queer audience members, who are present in large numbers, she proposes showing appreciation by including a official undergarment to the merchandise booth.
What Lies Ahead
It may well end the manner these kind of solo careers typically finish – the enmity towards ex-group member her previous colleague Jesy Nelson voiced within Natural at Disaster resolved, a media announcement to announce that Little Mix are reunited – but the fact that the entire audience appear word-perfect as they join in vocally to an album that was released just a few weeks prior causes one to ponder. And should it occur, the closing performance of Angel Of My Dreams underlines 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 this evening and is touring the UK through October 23rd.
