Day 98: JADE – THE ENCORE

I reviewed JADE’s debut solo album THAT’S SHOWBIZ BABY! early on during my project, and clunky writing aside, I stand behind every word: I still think it’s one of the best pop albums of recent years and I gave it a very reasonable 9.5. JADE has now released THAT’S SHOWBIZ BABY! THE ENCORE, a full B-side with eight extra tracks. Since I reviewed the original record, I’ll give myself permission to do this as a separate album, since I really wanted to listen to it ASAP.

I remember reading that JADE wrote hundreds of songs for THAT’S SHOWBIZ BABY! so this one surely has the cream of the crop from the ones that didn’t make the cut. That, in itself, is a little bit bonkers: for any other artist, THE ENCORE would be a career-defining album, yet for JADE, these are just the cast-offs from the actual record.

I was listening to the record from my shower speaker and didn’t look at the track list beforehand, so when I heard the first few seconds of “Frozen”, I gasped very overdramatically. But it’s a Madonna cover! It just cements in my mind that JADE is a pop scholar, she draws so well from what came before her but she makes everything her own. I think it’ll be her taste and her instinct that sets her apart from others pop stars, the fact that she’s able to take what she knows and build on it to make it something completely her own. She’s one album in and she has such a recognisable sound, no one is doing it like her.

I’m still wondering why THAT’S SHOWBIZ BABY! didn’t make a bigger splash than it did, even though it charted at number three on the UK Albums Chart and was critically almost universally lauded. But especially seeing what a huge movement Brat became, the sky is kind of the limit now for what kind of an effect a pop album can have, and JADE’s was at that level.

Love a bit of JADE, I really enjoyed THE ENCORE. “Use Me” and “Church” are among the top as very good dance pop songs, but the standout for me is the bonus track “Tar”, which I did not expect from her. JADE is a top-tier pop girlie with potential to do something that goes down in the history of the genre, I can just smell it. She’s the one to watch. 8.5/10.