“Angel of my dreams, I will always love you and hate you, it’s not fair…”
There are pop stars who make pop music, and then there are pop stars who truly live and breathe the stuff, like Jade.
As one-fourth (third?) of Little Mix, one of the most successful girl groups of the 21st century, she’d already provided the world with over a decade’s worth of bangers and bops aplenty, including hits like “Wings,” Move,” “Salute,” “Shout Out to My Ex” and “Break Up Song” – all of which she co-wrote – and of course, fan-favorite “Wasabi” – which she also co-wrote.
The pop diva-loving, drag queen-worshipping, Allyship Award-winning certifiable Meme Queen™ has consistently showcased a genuine, deep-rooted love and appreciation for all things pop, glam, gay and camp for years now, from her hilarious social media presence to her Drag Race appearances to lip-syncing for her life at The Girls Aloud Show just this past month.
Jade just gets it. That’s usually the quickest way I can communicate to someone who hasn’t paid much, or any, attention to her journey thus far. Her recent interview with Michael Cragg for Beat illustrates as much. Just look at how she responded when asked about a reference playlist while making her solo music:
“It’s evolved since then, but there was a bit of Madonna, Britney, Kylie, Janet and Diana Ross. In my mind, I wanted to be a culmination of all of those people, because that’s what I grew up listening to. I knew I wanted to be the pop girlie. I’m obsessed with pop, I always will be, so it was how do I become the next pop girlie that stands out and has something different. Sometimes [in the studio] I was feeling cunty, other days I wanted to do a house-y banger, then another it was like ‘Let’s get into Janet’s ‘Feedback’ world.'”
See? Jade just gets it. Then there’s this:
“Times are a bit fucking bleak at the minute and pop’s always been the best release of negativity for me. It’s a saviour, in a way. You can’t deny pop’s presence and magic, and I’ve always been obsessed with the pop princesses. My perfect Saturday night is sitting at home with all my friends watching every music video on YouTube. Jordan [Stephens, actor, musician and Jade’s boyfriend] will be playing Call of Duty and he’ll come down and be like, ‘Fuck me, you’re watching Rachel Stevens again.'”
Rachel Fucking Stevens. There’s nothing more “if you know, you know” than a Rachel Stevens reference. Jade…she just gets it!
Over the past three years, Jesy Nelson (balegdeh, if you’re nasty), Leigh-Anne Pinnock and Perrie Edwards have all begun carving out their respective solo paths, leaving Jade to go last.
And, spoiler alert, it was thoroughly worth the wait.
@jadethirlwall i've still got it huns #jade #angelofmydreams #newmusic #dance ♬ Angel Of My Dreams – JADE
The “Angel of My Dreams” campaign formally kicked off in early July, including the launch of @thejaderoom and some super sleuth-themed teasers, a website with a fake iMessage box to chat with Jade herself, and a requisite TikTok dance – done while wearing a Buffy and Angel tee, of course. Her fucking mind.
The formal announcement of the single came next, with a release that declared the track to be a “frenetically shapeshifting, gloriously OTT banger that explores her love/hate relationship with a pop industry she’s been at the heart of since her former band Little Mix launched in 2011.”
It’s all been very exciting. And now, as of Friday (July 19), “Angel of My Dreams” is finally here. And, just as promised, it’s insane.
Co-crafted in Los Angeles with Steph Jones (of Sabrina Carpenter‘s “Espresso” fame), Pablo Bowman (of Calvin Harris and Ellie Goulding‘s “Miracle”), it’s a six-songs-in-one, everything-and-the-kitchen-sink affair, bringing Xenomania‘s Frankenstein production style for Girls Aloud to mind.
In some ways, “Angel of My Dreams” is like a 2024 version of Gwen Stefani‘s “What You Waiting For?” which similarly found the No Doubt frontwoman busting out from her old band to make her long-awaited solo debut with an unexpectedly left-lane, overwhelming descent into pop madness, channelling the pressures she was facing at the time from her record label into the music.
Jade soars and dips and swerves through tempos, hooks, and melodies like mad, never lingering on a sonic style for too long – perfect for the TikTok-addicted brain, tricking us all into holding on tight through the entire 3:17 ride as she works out her complicated relationship with the industry.
Let’s dive in line by line, shall we?
“I wonder if one day that you’ll say that you care / If you say you love me madly…”
The song kicks off with a sample of Sandie Shaw‘s 1967 Eurovision-winning UK entry “Puppet on a String.” Jade goes into detail about that decision in a muffled voice note labeled “file_00263.mp3” on her Spotify channel. It’s like a little Easter egg, adding to the already clever campaign full of “leaks” and clues.
“I’ve been trying to sample ‘Puppet On A String’ for years. I had a session with Pablo years ago…and he was like ‘do you remember when you used to try and sample ‘Puppet On A String’ all the time?’ I was like ‘that’s so random that you remember that about me, I mustn’t have let it go.’ I was like ‘oh, well maybe we should do it.’”
That track – about someone hopelessly, desperately wishing for someone to give them a chance – takes on new meaning when tacked onto a track about Jade hopelessly, desperately chasing the highs of the music business.
“Hey, Mike, let’s do somethin’ crazy,” she declares off the top. (I like when people talk at the beginning of songs, I think it’s kinda rad.) She’s referring to Mike Sabath here, who she also worked with on “Wasabi.” And indeed, crazy they got!
“Angel of my dreams, I will always love you and hate you, it’s not fair / It’s so bittersweet, I will always want you and need you, you don’t care…”
That majestic, misleadingly dreamy-sounding, vaguely Kylie “Kiss Me Once”-esque chorus might have you thinking that Jade’s feeling fine and floating on cloud nine. But just as quickly, we’re plucked down from the clouds, right into the depths of hell with the help of a racing, “Hold It Against Me”-style pulse. Her voice distorts and becomes ghoulish: “You don’t care…you don’t care…”
“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…”
And there it is: we’re plunged into the cold, harsh realities of the music industry, veering somewhere closer to blunt Brat-meets-Britney territory. She confronts the powers that be – those pulling the strings, if you will! – for only being bothered about her profit potential.
“Sold my soul to a psycho / They say I’m so lucky / Better act like you’re lucky, honey…”
Do you see what Jade did there? “Psycho”? Could be. Or does she mean SYCO, as in SYCO Records, as in the name of Simon Cowell‘s record label, to which she was signed to alongside the other members of Little Mix after winning The X Factor UK in 2011? Incredible.
“But it feels nice in the spotlight / When the camera flashy, I act so happy / I’m in heaven when you’re lookin’ at me…”
The pendulum is swinging. She loves being a star! Maybe all the bleakness behind-the-scenes doesn’t outweigh the pop star perks, after all? Time to turn it on for the camera. Big smile, Jade! (Also, these melodies especially wouldn’t feel out of place on Rachel Stevens’ Come & Get It, which wouldn’t be at all surprising if intentional.)
“Love when you call me a star / You let me down in the dark / Want you and need you, you don’t care…”
By the time we’re back to that chorus, it’s sped-up (TikTok friendly already!) – as if she’s sampling a pre-existing hit. Genius! She’s going faster and faster, spinning ’round and ’round for that validation, but fame won’t love you back, Jade. It’s a rat race! It’s not fair…
“It’s not fair that I try, fair that I cry, fair that I buy you sushi / Got you a car, got you a house, got you a suit, it’s Gucci / If I don’t win, I’m in the bin, you say you never knew me / But when I pop off, you sue me….so sue me.”
We’re back in the dark depths of the industry, as Jade’s voice grows increasingly layered and robotic. You just can’t win, can you? When you’re at the top, they’re either riding your coattails or trying to take you to court to collect some cash. And when you flop, they just drop you like a bad habit.
“But…it feels nice in the spotlight…” We’re yo-yoing madly between the conflicting emotions at this point. “It’s not fair…” And with one last resounding cry of the chorus, back to its glorious original rendition, Jade sings it all the way out of her system, until ultimately surrendering: “I’ll always love you…”
Whew. What a ride…or rather, a punch.
“What I’m going for is a pop punch to the face,” she explained in the release. “I want people to be like ‘oh my god, I didn’t expect that’ – but then want to listen to it again.”
“I didn’t want to do a safe first single, that was really important to me. 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.'”
Shades of Madonna‘s “Neat?” Anybody who says my show is neat has got to go.” Mission thoroughly accomplished. It’s one hell of a way to make a first impression.
Disjointed? Surely. Disorienting? Certainly. Brilliant? Most definitely. Honestly, not since Nicola Roberts‘ “Beat of My Drum” has a girl group member-gone-solo’s debut effort felt so thrillingly unique – it’s truly unlike anything else.
“Angel of My Dreams” is the stuff of a studied PopJustice forum nerd. It’s a song that’s bold enough to warrant the decision to drop her surname and simply go by “Jade,” and it sets the bar incredibly high for whatever comes next.
It’s everything I love about pop music. Jade just gets it.
UPDATE: That music video. Her “Look at Me”-slash-“Let Your Head Go” over-the-top camp-pop moment. I won’t stop talking about this for a while. She gets it, she gets it, she gets it!
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Photo credit: RCA
