JADE – That’s Showbiz Baby
★★★★☆
The brilliance of last summer’s “Angel of My Dreams” lay in its monstrosity. The solo debut of former Little Mix star Jade Thirlwall, it throbbed with finally-uncaged-girlband-member piss and vinegar, the star laying out her dysfunctional relationship with fame astride assaulting synths and a distorted Sandie Shaw sample. It was the finest call to attention British pop has produced in years.
More than 12 months later, Thirlwall’s long-awaited first LP can’t entirely match it. That’s Showbiz Baby is at its best when it echoes the maximalist racket of “Angel...”: the woozy drop and moans (plus a Supremes sample!) on “Before You Break My Heart”; the airhorns and accents on “Headache”, with its pouty chorus that sounds like it’s sung mid-strop; the sloppy, club-sweat carnality of singles “IT Girl” and “Midnight Cowboy” (“I’m a real wild bitch, yeah I’m mental/ I’m the ride of your life, not a rental/ I’m the editor, call me Mister Enninful”).
The few tracks here that rest on more conventional, chart-friendly sounds prevent it from being a total home run, notably the anonymous tropical house of “Lip Service” and the pretty-if-Little-Mixy ballad “Silent Disco”, with its distractingly Jesy Nelson-coded warbles and vocal runs. But the highs on That’s Showbiz Baby are so thrillingly nutty that it’s hard not to be all-in with the idea of Thirlwall as Britain’s galaxy-brained saviour of pop – at least by the time album two rolls around. Adam White
Sophie Ellis-Bextor – Perimenopop
★★★★☆
“Since we met, it’s like I’m living in a kaleidoscope,” Sophie Ellis-Bextor sings on “Relentless Love”, the sizzling disco-funk opener from her eighth studio album, Perimenopop. “What a mighty trick.” Ellis-Bextor pulls off a feat of her own, too, with this daring and superbly produced record.
Perimenopop marks her return to the pop and disco sound that first propelled her to fame with 2001’s Read My Lips – most notably with the recently resurrected single “Murder on the Dancefloor”. Don’t mistake it for some last-ditch attempt at pop glory, though: this is Ellis-Bextor in her most commanding, confident form. As you might glean from the title, she’s out to prove that, however our ageist, misogynist music industry might see it, women are more than capable of churning out bangers past the age of 25. She succeeds, spectacularly.
Many of these songs are delivered from the perspective of someone giddily in love. She’s hooked on the squelchy, swooning “Taste”, which is loaded with celestial harmonies and tongue-in-cheek lyrics: “Baby, I don’t know what goes into your recipe/ It just works for me.” The juddery bass on the more introspective, electropop track “Heart Sing” – a stroke-of-genius collaboration with Norwegian pop artist Sigrid – is redolent of French house producer Kavinsky. “Glamorous” is similarly heady, encapsulating the silky, dangerous allure of something (or someone) we know is bad for us.
Elsewhere, Ellis-Bextor’s avant-garde sensibilities ensure that this album never feels like an exercise in trend-chasing. You can hear a whisper of Selena Gomez in “Stay on Me”, the track the US pop star co-wrote with Julia Michaels and Kid Harpoon. But Ellis-Bextor makes it her own, flipping the tone from its original jealousy to one of borderline smugness, knowing her man is too devoted to stray. “Dolce Vita” is a perfect slice of summer bursting with shimmering synths and irresistible hooks, while “Diamond in the Dark” glimmers with an instantly recognisable Nile Rodgers riff. Perimenopop is destined to get listeners hot and bothered; Ellis-Bextor remains as cool as ever. Roisin O’Connor
