Jade Review: Pop's Quirkiest 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 audience's attention. They usually follow certain rules – either an attempt at a toughened-up R&B sound, complete with at least a track featuring a cameo by an American rapper, or a lunge towards “grownup” mainstream-approved polished adult contemporary – and they typically become a barely recalled interim project, the visual and auditory experience of someone gamely killing time before the inevitable reunion tour.

A Unique Journey

This common scenario that renders the unconventional route currently taken by former Little Mix member Jade Thirlwall oddly invigorating. She definitely participates in engaging in the typical activities that former talent show band members are wont to do, 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 fan emblazoned with the phrase “TINA SAYS YOU’RE A CUNT”, a lyric from Gossip, her musical partnership with dance duo Confidence Man – but nevertheless, the music she’s opted to make is pop of a noticeably more intriguing stripe than usual.

An Impressive First Single

She opened her solo account with the previous year's excellent Angel Of My Dreams, a highly unusual, jolting and disjointed melange of big pop balladry, noisy synthesisers and samples from Sandie Shaw’s Puppet On A String.

As the set 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 equally typical dancefloor-oriented pop, driven by exactly the Supremes sample its title suggests; things are padded out with a interpretation of Madonna’s Frozen that devolves into a medley of nineties club anthems, 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 Abba-esque chorus with song sections that present a borderline atonal brand of funk or are enfolded by deep reverberation. She offers Unconditional to her mum: it features a wonderful tune, early 80s syndrums, and powerful guitar riffs allied to clanging industrial drums. IT Girl unexpectedly reanimates the musical aesthetic of early 00s electroclash, or rather the exciting variation of millennium-era popular music that was strongly inspired by electroclash, while the track Natural at Disaster begins like a piano ballad before suddenly shifting into a dark computerized noise.

An Appealing Presence

The artist on stage is a hugely appealing, delightfully authentic presence: she is, she announces at one point, “shaking like a shitting dog”; shouting out her queer audience members, who are here in force, she proposes showing appreciation by including a branded jockstrap to the merch stand.

What Lies Ahead

It may well end the way such individual artistic pursuits typically finish – the enmity towards former bandmate her previous colleague Jesy Nelson voiced within the song Natural at Disaster patched up, a media announcement to announce that the original group are reunited – but the reality that every attendee appear knowing every lyric as they join in vocally to an album that only came out a month ago causes one to ponder. And even if it does, the closing Angel Of My Dreams emphasizes that Jade's individual musical path is not destined to fade into the realms of the dimly remembered placeholder.

• Jade performs at the O2 Victoria Warehouse in the city of Manchester tonight and is traveling across the United Kingdom until 23 October.