With the exception of Harry Styles, individual artistic journeys of former members of televised singing competition groups rarely capture the public imagination. They usually follow certain rules – either an attempt at a toughened-up R&B sound, replete with at least one single including a guest appearance by an American rapper, or a lunge towards “grownup” mainstream-approved smooth pop-rock territory – and they usually amount to a barely recalled interim project, the sight and sound of someone enthusiastically passing the years before the inevitable band comeback concerts.
It’s a state of affairs that makes the idiosyncratic path thus far followed by former Little Mix member Jade Thirlwall surprisingly refreshing. She definitely participates in doing the kind of things that former talent show band members are known for undertaking, among them emphatically stating that she’s no longer subject the press-managed restrictions of the factory-produced music business – based on the audience this evening, the most popular item on the official goods stand is a handheld cooling device emblazoned with the phrase “TINA SAYS YOU’RE A CUNT”, a song line from the track Gossip, her collaboration with electronic pair the group Confidence Man – but regardless, the music she’s opted to make is pop music with a far more fascinating style than usual.
She launched her individual career with the previous year's excellent her debut single Angel Of My Dreams, a highly unusual, jolting and fragmented mixture of grand emotional pop songs, noisy synthesisers and samples from Sandie Shaw’s Puppet On A String.
During the performance on her initial individual concert series proves, not everything on her first full-length release That’s Showbiz, Baby! is quite as interesting 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 its title suggests; the show is extended with a cover of the Madonna classic Frozen that transforms into a musical compilation of 90s dance hits, from the track Pacific State by 808 State to Set You Free by N-Trance.
But there’s also more material in the vein of Angel Of My Dreams. Headache combines an catchy refrain reminiscent of Abba with verses that present a nearly discordant style of rhythmic music or are surrounded with deep reverberation. She offers the track Unconditional to her mother: it features a fabulous melody, early 80s syndrums, and crashing rock guitar combined with clanging industrial drums. The song IT Girl surprisingly resurrects the sound of early 00s electroclash, or rather the thrilling strain of early 00s pop that was strongly inspired by the electroclash genre, while Natural at Disaster starts out like a keyboard-led emotional song before unexpectedly swerving into a malevolent electronic grind.
The artist on stage is a hugely appealing, cheerily unvarnished figure: she is, she announces at a certain moment, “shaking like a shitting dog”; shouting out her LGBTQ+ fanbase, who are here in force, she suggests thanking them by including a branded jockstrap to the merchandise booth.
It could conclude the way such individual artistic pursuits end – the enmity towards ex-group member Jesy Nelson expressed in the song Natural at Disaster resolved, a media announcement to declare that Little Mix are back – but the fact that every attendee appear knowing every lyric as they join in vocally to an album that was released just a month ago makes you wonder. And even if it does, the final Angel Of My Dreams emphasizes that Thirlwall’s solo career is not destined to fade into the realms of the dimly remembered placeholder.
Jade plays the O2 Victoria Warehouse in the city of Manchester this evening and is traveling across the United Kingdom through October 23rd.
A tech enthusiast and lifestyle blogger with a passion for sharing practical insights and inspiring creativity in everyday life.
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