Jade Thirlwall Live Show Analysis: Pop's Most Unique Artist Rises Above Manufactured Origins

Harry Styles aside, individual artistic journeys of former members of TV talent show-manufactured bands rarely capture the public imagination. These efforts typically adhere to predictable patterns – often a pursuit at a toughened-up R&B sound, replete with at least a track featuring a cameo by an US hip-hop artist, or a lunge towards mature 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 before the inevitable reunion tour.

An Idiosyncratic Path

This common scenario that makes the idiosyncratic path thus far followed by Little Mix’s Jade Thirlwall surprisingly refreshing. She definitely participates in engaging in the typical activities that former talent show band members are known for undertaking, including emphatically stating that she's free from the press-managed restrictions of the factory-produced music business – judging by tonight’s crowd, the most popular item on the merchandise stall is a fan emblazoned with the phrase “TINA SAYS YOU’RE A CUNT”, a lyric from Gossip, her musical partnership with electronic pair Confidence Man – but nevertheless, the songs she has chosen to create is pop of a noticeably more intriguing stripe 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, jolting and disjointed melange of big pop balladry, loud electronic instruments and samples from Sandie Shaw’s Puppet On A String.

During the performance on her initial individual concert series proves, not everything on her debut album That’s Showbiz, Baby! is equally fascinating as her debut single: the track Before You Break My Heart is insanely catchy, but it’s also typical dancefloor-oriented pop, driven by precisely the Supremes sample its title suggests; the show is extended with a cover of Madonna’s Frozen that transforms into a musical compilation of nineties club anthems, from the track Pacific State by 808 State to N-Trance’s Set You Free.

More Intriguing Material

But there’s also more where Angel Of My Dreams came from. The song Headache combines an catchy refrain reminiscent of Abba with song sections that present a borderline atonal brand of funk or are enfolded by cavernous echo. She offers the track Unconditional to her mother: it has a wonderful tune, early 80s syndrums, and powerful guitar riffs allied to clanging industrial drums. IT Girl surprisingly resurrects the sound of 2000s electronic punk movement, or rather the exciting variation of early 00s pop that was heavily influenced by the electroclash genre, while Natural at Disaster starts out 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 announces at one point, “trembling uncontrollably”; giving a shoutout to her queer audience members, who are here in force, she suggests thanking them by including a official undergarment to the merch stand.

Future Possibilities

It may well end the manner such individual artistic pursuits typically finish – the enmity towards ex-group member Jesy Nelson voiced within Natural at Disaster patched up, a media announcement to declare that Little Mix are reunited – but the reality 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 final Angel Of My Dreams underlines that Thirlwall’s solo career is not destined to fade into the domain of the dimly remembered placeholder.

• Jade plays the Manchester venue O2 Victoria Warehouse in Manchester this evening and is traveling across the United Kingdom until 23 October.