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With the exception of Harry Styles, the solo careers of former members of TV talent show-manufactured bands rarely capture the public imagination. They usually follow predictable patterns – either an attempt at a toughened-up R&B sound, replete with at least a track featuring a cameo by an US hip-hop artist, or a move into “grownup” mainstream-approved polished adult contemporary – and they typically become a barely recalled interim project, the sight and sound of someone gamely killing time before the inevitable band comeback concerts.

An Idiosyncratic Path

This common scenario that renders the unconventional route thus far followed by former Little Mix member Jade Thirlwall surprisingly refreshing. She’s certainly not above doing the kind of things that former talent show band members are wont to do, among them loudly underlining that she’s no longer subject the media-trained constraints of the factory-produced music business – judging by tonight’s crowd, the top-selling product on the official goods stand is a handheld cooling device displaying the legend “TINA SAYS YOU’RE A CUNT”, a song line from the track Gossip, her musical partnership with dance duo the group Confidence Man – but nevertheless, the songs she has chosen to create is pop of a noticeably more intriguing stripe than the norm.

A Superb Debut

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 grand emotional pop songs, loud electronic instruments and audio excerpts from Sandie Shaw’s Puppet On A String.

During the performance on her initial individual concert series proves, not every song on her debut album her album That’s Showbiz, Baby! is quite as interesting as her debut single: Before You Break My Heart is insanely catchy, but it’s also typical dancefloor-oriented pop, driven by exactly the Motown musical snippet its title suggests; things are padded out with a cover of Madonna’s Frozen that devolves into a medley of 90s dance hits, from 808’s Pacific State to N-Trance’s Set You Free.

Additional Fascinating Content

However, there exists additional material in the vein of Angel Of My Dreams. The song Headache melds an Abba-esque chorus with verses that present a nearly discordant brand of funk or are enfolded by deep reverberation. She offers the track Unconditional to her mother: it features a fabulous melody, eighties-style electronic percussion, and crashing rock guitar allied to clanging industrial drums. The song IT Girl surprisingly resurrects the musical aesthetic of 2000s electronic punk movement, or rather the thrilling strain of millennium-era popular music that was heavily influenced by the electroclash genre, while Natural at Disaster starts out like a keyboard-led emotional song before unexpectedly swerving into a dark computerized noise.

A Charming Performer

The woman at its centre is a immensely likable, cheerily unvarnished figure: she declares, she states at a certain moment, “shaking like a shitting dog”; shouting out her queer audience members, who are here in force, she proposes thanking them by including a official undergarment to the merchandise booth.

Future Possibilities

It could conclude the manner such individual artistic pursuits typically finish – the hostility towards former bandmate Jesy Nelson expressed in Natural at Disaster patched up, a media announcement to announce that Little Mix are back – but the reality that every attendee appear word-perfect as they join in vocally to a record 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 realms of the barely recalled interim project.

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