Jade Thirlwall Live Show Analysis: Pop's Quirkiest Star Rises Above Manufactured Origins
Harry Styles aside, the solo careers of former members of televised singing competition groups seldom grip the audience's attention. They usually follow certain rules – often a pursuit at a toughened-up R&B sound, replete with at least one single featuring a cameo by an American rapper, or a move into mature mainstream-approved smooth pop-rock territory – and they typically become a dimly remembered placeholder, the sight and sound of someone enthusiastically passing the years before the inevitable reunion tour.
A Unique Journey
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 doing the kind of things that ex-reality TV group artists are known for undertaking, among them loudly underlining that she’s no longer subject the press-managed restrictions of the manufactured pop industry – judging by the audience this evening, the top-selling product on the official goods stand is a handheld cooling device emblazoned with the phrase “TINA SAYS YOU’RE A CUNT”, a lyric from Gossip, her musical partnership with dance duo the group Confidence Man – but nevertheless, the songs she has chosen to create is pop music with a far more fascinating style than the norm.
An Impressive First Single
She launched her individual career with last year’s superb her debut single Angel Of My Dreams, a highly unusual, jarring and fragmented mixture of big pop balladry, loud electronic instruments and audio excerpts from the classic track Puppet On A String by Sandie Shaw.
As the set on her initial individual concert series proves, not every song on her first full-length release her album That’s Showbiz, Baby! is equally fascinating as her debut single: Before You Break My Heart is insanely catchy, but it's equally standard-issue disco pop, powered by exactly the Motown musical snippet its title suggests; the show is extended with a cover of the Madonna classic Frozen that transforms into a medley of 90s dance hits, from 808’s Pacific State to Set You Free by N-Trance.
More Intriguing Material
But there’s also more material in the vein of Angel Of My Dreams. The song Headache melds an catchy refrain reminiscent of Abba with song sections that offer a borderline atonal brand of funk or are enfolded by cavernous echo. She offers the track Unconditional to her mum: it has a wonderful tune, eighties-style electronic percussion, and powerful guitar riffs allied to 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 strongly inspired by electroclash, while Natural at Disaster begins like a piano ballad before suddenly shifting into a malevolent electronic grind.
A Charming Performer
The artist on stage is a immensely likable, delightfully authentic presence: she declares, she states at a certain moment, “shaking like a shitting dog”; giving a shoutout to her LGBTQ+ fanbase, who are here in force, she proposes showing appreciation by adding a branded jockstrap to the merch stand.
Future Possibilities
It could conclude the manner such individual artistic pursuits end – the hostility towards former bandmate her previous colleague Jesy Nelson voiced within the song Natural at Disaster resolved, a press conference to announce that the original group are reunited – but the reality that every attendee appear word-perfect as they join in vocally to an album that was released just a month ago makes you wonder. And should it occur, the closing performance of Angel Of My Dreams underlines that Jade's individual musical path is not destined to fade into the realms of the barely recalled interim project.
Jade performs at the O2 Victoria Warehouse in Manchester tonight and is traveling across the United Kingdom until 23 October.
