Jade Review: Pop's Most Unique Star Rises Above Manufactured Origins
With the exception of Harry Styles, individual artistic journeys of former members of TV talent show-manufactured bands rarely capture the public imagination. They usually follow predictable patterns – often a pursuit at a more edgy urban music style, replete with at least one single featuring a cameo by an American rapper, or a lunge towards “grownup” Radio 2-friendly polished adult contemporary – and they usually amount to a dimly remembered placeholder, the sight and sound of someone enthusiastically passing the years before the inevitable band comeback concerts.
An Idiosyncratic Path
It’s a state of affairs that renders the unconventional route currently taken 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 wont to do, including loudly underlining that she’s no longer subject the press-managed restrictions of the factory-produced music business – judging by the audience this evening, the most popular item on the merchandise stall is a handheld cooling device emblazoned with the legend “TINA SAYS YOU’RE A CUNT”, a lyric from Gossip, her musical partnership with electronic pair the group Confidence Man – but nevertheless, the music she’s opted to make is pop music with a far more fascinating style 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 mixture of big pop balladry, noisy synthesisers and samples from Sandie Shaw’s Puppet On A String.
During the performance on her first solo tour proves, not everything on her debut album That’s Showbiz, Baby! is quite as interesting as that: Before You Break My Heart is insanely catchy, but it's equally standard-issue disco pop, powered by exactly the Supremes sample the name implies; things are padded out with a interpretation of Madonna’s Frozen that transforms into a medley of 90s dance hits, from the track Pacific State by 808 State to N-Trance’s Set You Free.
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 offer a nearly discordant brand of funk or are surrounded with cavernous echo. She dedicates Unconditional to her mother: it has a wonderful tune, early 80s syndrums, and crashing rock guitar combined with clanging industrial drums. IT Girl unexpectedly reanimates the sound of 2000s electronic punk movement, or more accurately the thrilling strain of millennium-era popular music that was heavily influenced by electroclash, while the track Natural at Disaster starts out like a piano ballad before unexpectedly swerving into a dark computerized noise.
An Appealing Presence
The woman at its centre is a hugely appealing, delightfully authentic figure: she declares, she states at one point, “shaking like a shitting dog”; giving a shoutout to her queer audience members, who are present in large numbers, she suggests showing appreciation by adding a official undergarment to the merchandise booth.
What Lies Ahead
It could conclude the manner such individual artistic pursuits typically finish – the enmity towards ex-group member Jesy Nelson expressed in Natural at Disaster resolved, a media announcement to announce that the original group are reunited – but the reality that every attendee appear word-perfect as they join in vocally to a record that was released just a few weeks prior causes one to ponder. And even if it does, the final Angel Of My Dreams underlines that Jade's individual musical path is unlikely to recede into the realms of the barely recalled interim project.
Jade performs at the O2 Victoria Warehouse in Manchester this evening and is touring the UK through October 23rd.
