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Harry Styles aside, individual artistic journeys of ex-participants of TV talent show-manufactured bands seldom grip the public imagination. They usually follow predictable patterns – either an attempt at a toughened-up R&B sound, complete with at least a track featuring a guest appearance by an US hip-hop artist, or a move into mature Radio 2-friendly smooth pop-rock territory – and they usually amount to a barely recalled interim project, the sight and sound of someone gamely killing time before the inevitable band comeback concerts.

A Unique Journey

This common scenario that renders the unconventional route thus far followed by former Little Mix member Jade Thirlwall oddly invigorating. She’s certainly not above engaging in the typical activities that former talent show band members are wont to do, including emphatically stating that she’s no longer subject the media-trained constraints of the manufactured pop industry – judging by the audience this evening, the top-selling product on the merchandise stall is a fan displaying the legend “TINA SAYS YOU’RE A CUNT”, a song line from Gossip, her collaboration with dance duo the group Confidence Man – but regardless, the songs she has chosen to create 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 deeply odd, jolting and disjointed mixture of grand emotional pop songs, noisy synthesisers and audio excerpts from the classic track Puppet On A String by Sandie Shaw.

As the set on her first solo tour demonstrates, not every song 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 extremely memorable, but it's equally typical dancefloor-oriented pop, powered by exactly the Motown musical snippet the name implies; things are padded out with a interpretation of Madonna’s Frozen that transforms into a medley of nineties club anthems, from the track Pacific State by 808 State to Set You Free by N-Trance.

More Intriguing Material

However, there exists additional material in the vein of Angel Of My Dreams. Headache combines an Abba-esque chorus with song sections that offer a borderline atonal brand of funk or are enfolded by cavernous echo. She dedicates Unconditional to her mum: it features a fabulous melody, eighties-style electronic percussion, and powerful guitar riffs combined with clanging industrial drums. IT Girl unexpectedly reanimates the musical aesthetic of 2000s electronic punk movement, or rather the exciting variation of millennium-era popular music that was strongly inspired by the electroclash genre, while Natural at Disaster starts out like a piano ballad before suddenly shifting into a malevolent electronic grind.

An Appealing Presence

The artist on stage is a immensely likable, delightfully authentic figure: she is, she announces at a certain moment, “shaking like a shitting dog”; giving a shoutout to her queer audience members, who are here in force, she proposes thanking them by adding a official undergarment to the merch stand.

What Lies Ahead

It may well end the manner such individual artistic pursuits end – the hostility towards former bandmate Jesy Nelson voiced within Natural at Disaster patched up, a media announcement to announce that the original group are reunited – but the fact that the entire audience seem to be word-perfect as they join in vocally to a record that only came out a few weeks prior makes you wonder. And even if it does, the closing performance of 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 plays the Manchester venue O2 Victoria Warehouse in Manchester this evening and is touring the UK until 23 October.