JADE – THAT'S SHOWBIZ BABY!

THAT'S SHOWBIZ BABY! is a declaration of Jade Thirlwall’s popstar ethos, straddling crystal clarity and sly ambiguity. At its best, it dazzles – Unconditional is a capital-P pop triumph, Donna Summer disco grinding against Gossip-esque thrash, while early singles Angel of My Dreams and Midnight Cowboy flirt with ingenuity so keenly they pull her clear of the Capital FM orbit still sucking in her parent group and its splintered parts. Silent Disco, the album's closer, plays as a promising prelude to Thirlwall’s solo future: a glimmering, sprawling soundscape where her vocal performance scales new heights against the track’s breadth.

But there’s bloat. Two or three tracks could be cut without remorse. Lip Service lands feather-light, a Little Mix B-side in disguise. Headache lumbers in like a noughties Britney reject: verses stuck in mud, a chorus that grates rather than grips. It’s framed as idiosyncrasy, sold as “edge”, before collapsing into Thirlwall’s now-textbook gearshift: everything blown out and affirming, yet unfinished and unearned.

Much of what makes THAT'S SHOWBIZ BABY! work, though, is what we’ve already been drip-fed over the past year. The result is less revelation than stress test – a popstar proof-of-concept. In that, Thirlwall proves herself pop’s newest chameleon: brash, uneven and impossible to ignore.

Listen to: Unconditional, Silent Disco