When a member of a beloved group act decides to strike out on their own, there\u2019s always a lot riding on their debut solo single. One song to reintroduce a familiar face in a new context and, for better or worse, be judged alongside other former bandmates\u2019 solo work when audiences inevitably decide who\u2019s the breakout star. Everyone wants to be the Justin or the Harry, but not everyone can be. Released two years after her X Factor-bred girl group Little Mix announced an indefinite hiatus, JADE\u2019s debut solo single \u201cAngel of My Dreams\u201d is not only a masterclass in this canon, it\u2019s one of the best pop songs of the 2020s. In interviews, JADE has described the style of music she wants to make as \u201cFrankenstein pop,\u201d and \u201cAngel of My Dreams\u201d is that in spades, at times feeling like about three-and-a-half great pop songs sewn together with the stitches showing on purpose.<\/p>\n
From the sample of Sandie Shaw\u2019s 1967 Eurovision-winning \u201cPuppet On A String\u201d interrupted by a goofy call-to-action from JADE to her producer Mike Sabath (\u201cHey Mike, let\u2019s do something crazy!\u201d), to the pounding bassline and camera shutter clicking sounds underscoring JADE\u2019s sped-up vocals, to the jaw-dropping note she belts out at the final chorus, \u201cAngel of My Dreams\u201d is messy, overstimulating pop from a capital-D Diva. When she first auditioned for The X-Factor in 2008, then-15-year-old JADE was deemed not strong enough as a solo star and put into a group as an alternative to elimination. Seventeen years later, she\u2019s grown into her hard-earned spotlight.<\/p>\n
JADE\u2019s debut solo album THAT\u2019S SHOWBIZ BABY! comes on the wave of a maximalist pop revival. While the dominant mode of pop stardom of the late \u201910s and early \u201920s favored a more muted sound\u2014folk influence, whispery vocals, a lyrical and aesthetic focus on confessionalism and vulnerability\u2014the past year or so has seen the pendulum swing back towards a brasher, full-glam flavor of pop that blurs the line between authenticity and artifice. The true turning point was the summer of 2024\u2014BRAT<\/a>-mania, the \u201cEspresso\u201d-led rollout of Short n\u2019 Sweet<\/a> that turned Sabrina Carpenter into a household name, the delayed but fervent reaction to Chappell Roan\u2019s big gay rhinestone cowgirl oeuvre,\u201cDiet Pepsi\u201d marking Addison Rae\u2019s transformation from Hype House alum to trip-hop Britney, and JADE\u2019s reintroduction with \u201cAngel of My Dreams.\u201d<\/p>\n Like its lead single, most of the songs on THAT\u2019S SHOWBIZ BABY! feel like amalgamations of all the weirdo pop ideas that JADE couldn\u2019t quite bring to the table as a member of Little Mix for fear of chewing too much scenery or not sounding commercial enough. It\u2019s hard to imagine the girl group embracing the vogue-able electroclash sound that JADE does on \u201cIT girl\u201d or \u201cHeadache\u201d\u2014the latter of which sounds straight out of Santigold or M.I.A.\u2019s early catalogue at times, give or take some Fame-era Gaga theatrics. Maybe Little Mix could\u2019ve attempted the kind of horny high-camp JADE pulls off on \u201cMidnight Cowboy,\u201d but only JADE the solo star could\u2019ve made it her own with outrageous and deep-referential patter (\u201cI\u2019m the ride of your life, not a rental \/ I\u2019m the editor, call me Mr. Enninful \/ No vanilla, let\u2019s experimental\u201d) or a spoken-word intro from actor Ncuti Gatwa.<\/p>\n When JADE does disco revival on the excellent three-song, mid-album run of \u201cFantasy,\u201d \u201cUnconditional,\u201d and \u201cSelf Saboteur,\u201d it\u2019s a far cry from the shiny, plastic Antonoff fare that\u2019s had a good portion of pop music in a chokehold for the past five years or more. While these other girls sound like they\u2019re doing ABBA karaoke after some room-temp white wine and a Valium, JADE\u2019s take on disco is lively enough to make you think quaaludes have been legalized. It\u2019s also satisfying to see JADE finally get a proper vehicle for her truly incredible vocal range, to see her belting and whistle-toning and even rapping a bit on the borderline-hyperpoppy \u201cGlitch.\u201d Like any great pop star, JADE is a chameleon, ever-captivating as she shapeshifts through park \u2019n bark ballads and synthy, up-tempo dance music.<\/p>\n Any weakness that can be gleaned from THAT\u2019S SHOWBIZ BABY! is a fault of its promotional cycle as much as JADE\u2019s instincts and execution on the record itself. Fourteen tracks long and frontloaded with seven promotional singles drip-fed over the course of a year, the album takes a noticeable dip in the back half\u2014i.e., when all the tracks we haven\u2019t heard yet come in. Luckily the offenses\u2014JADE\u2019s somewhat-muted take on reggaeton and R&B on \u201cLip Service,\u201d the awkwardly-inserted Supremes sample in the otherwise groovy \u201cBefore You Break My Heart,\u201d and the flat lyrics on \u201cNatural At Disaster\u201d rumored to be about JADE\u2019s ex-bandmate Jesy Nelson (\u201cWreakin\u2019 havoc \/ Everything you do is problematic\u201d)\u2014are minor, and the record\u2019s highs are high enough to make up for its occasional lows. Still, if you must release half your album as singles, it\u2019s probably best to stagger them throughout the tracklist rather than bifurcate the album into an A-side of singles and a B-side of weaker deep cuts.<\/p>\n COVER STORY | JADE Plays the Game<\/a>Stephen Graham Jones on The Angel of Indian Lake, Slasher Tropes, and Saying Goodbye to Jade Daniels<\/a><\/p>\n THAT\u2019S SHOWBIZ BABY! positions JADE\u2019s relationship to making music as the most epic, tragic, thrilling, fucked-up love story of her life. This framing isn\u2019t new\u2014the musician enthralled in a passionate yet destructive love affair with their own work, singing love songs and breakup songs to the music itself\u2014but she blows it up to its most theatrical proportions. When she sings \u201cSellin\u2019 my soul to a psycho\u201d or ends \u201cIT girl\u201d with a pointed \u201cIt\u2019s a no from me,\u201d it\u2019s a more-than-obvious dig at X-Factor host and Syco Entertainment founder Simon Cowell. JADE\u2019s directness works because, while unafraid of emotional vulnerability, she\u2019s equally unafraid of looking silly. She knows when to not take herself too seriously and when to approach putting on a good show as a life-or-death matter. After years in a supporting role, JADE has proven herself more than ready to be a leading lady. Welcome to her show.<\/p>\n Read our recent digital cover story on JADE here<\/a>.<\/p>\n Grace Robins-Somerville is a writer from Brooklyn, New York, currently based in Wilmington, North Carolina. She is pursuing an MFA in Creative Nonfiction Writing from University of North Carolina, Wilmington. Her work has appeared in The Alternative, Merry-Go-Round Magazine, Post-Trash, Swim Into The Sound and her \u201cmostly about music\u201d newsletter, Our Band Could Be Your Wife<\/a>. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When a member of a beloved group act decides to strike out on their own, there\u2019s always a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":18443,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[156,157,111,139,69],"class_list":["post-18442","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-entertainment","tag-music","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18442","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18442"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18442\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18443"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18442"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18442"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18442"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}