🔗 Share this article Jade Live Show Analysis: The Music World's Most Unique Artist Transcends Manufactured Origins Harry Styles aside, the solo careers of ex-participants of televised singing competition groups seldom grip the audience's attention. They usually follow predictable patterns – either an attempt at a toughened-up R&B sound, replete with at least a track featuring a guest appearance by an American rapper, or a lunge towards “grownup” mainstream-approved smooth pop-rock territory – and they usually amount to a dimly remembered placeholder, the sight and sound of someone gamely killing time before the inevitable reunion tour. A Unique Journey This common scenario that makes the idiosyncratic path thus far followed by former Little Mix member Jade Thirlwall oddly invigorating. She’s certainly not above engaging in the typical activities that ex-reality TV group artists are known for undertaking, including loudly underlining that she's free from the press-managed restrictions of the manufactured pop industry – based on tonight’s crowd, the top-selling product on the official goods stand is a handheld cooling device displaying the phrase “TINA SAYS YOU’RE A CUNT”, a lyric from Gossip, her musical partnership with electronic pair the group Confidence Man – but nevertheless, the songs she has chosen to create is pop music with a far more fascinating style than usual. A Superb Debut She launched her individual career with last year’s superb Angel Of My Dreams, a highly unusual, jarring and fragmented mixture of grand emotional pop songs, noisy synthesisers and samples from Sandie Shaw’s Puppet On A String. As the set on her initial individual concert series demonstrates, not everything on her debut album her album That’s Showbiz, Baby! is equally fascinating as her debut single: the track Before You Break My Heart is extremely memorable, but it’s also standard-issue disco pop, driven by exactly the Motown musical snippet the name implies; the show is extended 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 Set You Free by N-Trance. Additional Fascinating Content However, there exists additional where Angel Of My Dreams came from. The song Headache melds an catchy refrain reminiscent of Abba with song sections that present a borderline atonal brand of funk or are enfolded by deep reverberation. She dedicates the track Unconditional to her mum: it has a wonderful tune, early 80s syndrums, and crashing rock guitar allied to clanging industrial drums. The song IT Girl unexpectedly reanimates the sound of 2000s electronic punk movement, or more accurately the thrilling strain 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 dark computerized noise. An Appealing Presence The woman at its centre is a hugely appealing, delightfully authentic presence: she declares, she announces at a certain moment, “shaking like a shitting dog”; giving a shoutout to her queer audience members, who are here in force, she suggests thanking them by adding a official undergarment to the merchandise booth. Future Possibilities It may well end the way such individual artistic pursuits end – the enmity towards ex-group member her previous colleague Jesy Nelson expressed in Natural at Disaster patched up, a media announcement to declare that Little Mix are back – but the fact that every attendee seem to be knowing every lyric as they join in vocally to a record that was released just a month ago 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 Manchester venue O2 Victoria Warehouse in Manchester this evening and is touring the UK through October 23rd.