EXCLUSIVE First Listen: JADE is the IT girl on kinetic new banger

It's a yes from us, hun x

Dr Pamela Stephenson, psychologist and wife of comedian Billy Connolly, has said that to become famous is to undergo intense trauma. For JADE - or, the artist formerly known as Jade Thirlwall of Little Mix - this dichotomy (that getting everything you thought you ever wanted is, tangibly, a bad thing) has proved to be the driving force and north star of her solo material.

Angel Of My Dreams, JADE's debut as a pop star in her own right, cast her relationship with the music industry as pseudo-masochistic ('I will always love you and hate you, it's not fair') and while her successive offerings of Midnight Cowboy and Fantasy strayed away from this narrative, it's back with a vengeance on IT girl - the kinetic younger sister to Angel.

The best thing from JADE's solo career - from a critical standpoint at least - is the references that she pulls for each release. Each of her songs has become a smorgasbord for left-of-centre pop nerds to feast on, with nods to artists as eclectic as Scooter (Angel Of My Dreams), Peaches (Midnight Cowboy) and Jessie Ware (Fantasy).

For IT girl, JADE settles into the chaotic groove only electronic dance music can give you. Its teeth-grinding beat, produced expertly by Cirkut, is a pleasant reminder of Azealia Banks's ultimate cool girl anthem 212, while at several points the shape-shifting banger also recalls Primadonna by Marina and the Diamonds, especially on the dramatic, operatic chrous.

'Throw me them roses,' JADE declares, 'well, that's just showbiz, baby! Won't sugarcoat it...you make me sick.'

IT girl thrives on this contrast of pleasure and pain, reflected in its own make-up. The opening is a feather-light (if not slightly sinister) top-line pop melody, while its calling card has become its grating, electro-clash inspired first verse, where the beat gets filthy, JADE rips off her angel wings...and really lets it rip.

'I am the IT girl, I am the sh*t girl,' she declares. 'I got the whole world, between my hips my girl.'

If Angel Of My Dreams hinted at some of the Machiavellian plots JADE has had to swerve since her time on The X Factor, IT girl is her definitive reclamation of this. Her anger is palpable through the track, but it's not off-putting, it's energising. To hear her rally against both the sexism ('smile, but don't show your teeth') and the pressures of sexualisation and ownership of both the personal and the creative ('say goodbye to autonomy, now your body belongs to me') is, quite, frankly a balm.

Through her music, JADE has found the autonomy denied to her at the beginning of her career. The strongest lyric of the entire song celebrates that; 'kitty got fangs, kitty got claws,' she spits, 'clause in the contract? Contract gone! Gone is the girl that you could con.'

You tell 'em, sis.

Anticipation for IT girl has been high ever since its first snippet leaked after the release of Angel Of My Dreams, and it really does feel like a coda to that song's narratives and themes. You cannot let your trauma define you, but you can ensure that you never let it traumatise you again. You have to break through it, and when you do, only then can you be truly free from it.

Basically...it's a yes from us, hun x

IT girl by JADE is out tomorrow (January 10) via RCA.