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With the exception of Harry Styles, individual artistic journeys of ex-participants of televised singing competition groups seldom grip the public imagination. They usually follow predictable patterns – often a pursuit at a toughened-up R&B sound, replete with at least one single including a guest appearance by an American rapper, or a move into mature mainstream-approved polished adult contemporary – 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.

A Unique Journey

This common scenario that makes the idiosyncratic path currently taken by Little Mix’s Jade Thirlwall surprisingly refreshing. She definitely participates in engaging in the typical activities that ex-reality TV group artists are wont to do, among them loudly underlining that she’s no longer subject the press-managed restrictions of the manufactured pop industry – based on the audience this evening, the top-selling product on the official goods stand is a handheld cooling device emblazoned with the legend “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 of a noticeably more intriguing stripe than usual.

A Superb Debut

She opened her solo account with last year’s superb her debut single Angel Of My Dreams, a highly unusual, jarring and fragmented mixture of big pop balladry, noisy synthesisers and samples from the classic track Puppet On A String by Sandie Shaw.

As the set on her initial individual concert series demonstrates, not everything 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 also typical dancefloor-oriented pop, driven by precisely the Motown musical snippet its title suggests; things are padded out with a interpretation of the Madonna classic Frozen that devolves into a musical compilation of nineties club anthems, from 808’s Pacific 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 Abba-esque chorus with verses that present a nearly discordant style of rhythmic music or are enfolded by cavernous echo. She offers Unconditional to her mother: it features a fabulous melody, early 80s syndrums, and powerful guitar riffs allied to metallic pounding beats. IT Girl unexpectedly reanimates the sound of early 00s electroclash, or more accurately the thrilling strain of early 00s pop that was strongly inspired by the electroclash genre, while Natural at Disaster begins like a keyboard-led emotional song before unexpectedly swerving into a dark computerized noise.

A Charming Performer

The artist on stage is a hugely appealing, cheerily unvarnished presence: she is, she announces at one point, “trembling uncontrollably”; giving a shoutout to her queer audience members, who are present in large numbers, she proposes thanking them by adding a branded jockstrap to the merchandise booth.

What Lies Ahead

It may well end the way such individual artistic pursuits end – the enmity towards former bandmate her previous colleague Jesy Nelson expressed in Natural at Disaster resolved, a press conference to announce that Little Mix are reunited – but the reality that every attendee seem to be knowing every lyric as they join in vocally to a record that was released just a month ago makes you wonder. And should it occur, the final performance of Angel Of My Dreams emphasizes that Thirlwall’s solo career is unlikely to recede into the domain of the dimly remembered placeholder.

• Jade performs at the Manchester venue O2 Victoria Warehouse in the city of Manchester tonight and is touring the UK through October 23rd.