First listen: JADE’s ‘Angel Of My Dreams’ is a firm two fingers to the dark side of the music industry

“What I’m going for is a relentless, huge pop punch to the face,” explains Jade Thirlwall of ‘Angel Of My Dreams’ – the first ever solo single from the Little Mix star.

“I want people to be like ‘oh my god, I didn’t expect that’ – but then want to listen to it again.” 

In terms of the unexpected, Jade can certainly say that again. This is a song that starts with the most distinctive of left-turns: a distorted sample of Sandie Shaw’s ‘Puppet On A String’ is heard, before it makes way for a production-heavy, Mariah-esque chorus. In turn, it then transforms into a dance banger anchored by the kind of raw beat that feels entirely on brand for Brat Summer™.

Still with us? The point is, there’s a LOT going on – and it’s a reflection of the bold vision that Thirlwall wanted to put across on her first ever solo outing.

“I didn’t want to do a safe first single, that was really important to me,” she explains.

“I’m setting the tone of who I am as an artist on my own. I want people to hear it and be like ‘what the fuck is that song?’. My worst nightmare is for someone to hear my song and go ‘that’s nice’.”

With our attention fully grabbed, it’s worth noting that the lyrics are pretty spicy too. In a roundabout way, this is Jade giving a brilliantly firm two fingers to the more controlling sides of the music industry.

“Care that I’m mad, care that I’m sad, it’s so bad it’s funny. Care if I cry, care if I die, you only care about money,” she sings. And then comes a clever bit of word play that offers a thinly-veiled dig at a certain high waisted jean wearing music mogul. “Selling my soul to a psycho, they say I’m so lucky,” she quips.

This, in turn, brings us back to that opening sample of Sandie Shaw. While that Eurovision winner from 1967 is seemingly random, that idea of being a puppet on a string perfectly fits the ethos of the song – and it therefore makes perfect sense to have it at the start.

“In the beginning of our career you do think you are this puppet, but at the same time it isn’t true – we wrote a lot of our songs, and we were behind a lot of what we put out there,” she says.

“I resented that as a statement. So it felt natural to take that and show that it can be true and untrue at the same time.”

“This dawn of pop girls giving people everything is so exciting. It couldn’t be better timing for my music. I’m so proud of it and I can say that with chest. The fans have waited long enough so now we just want to give it to them”.

As those fans will find out tomorrow, it’s been worth the wait. This moment of bold defiance sees Jade emerge as a solo artist with something important to say. Now, we just can’t wait to hear more…