Review: Jade Thunder – Alchemy
Finding the courage to sing your own story
Reviewing your daughter’s debut album isn’t easy.
Every compliment risks sounding like maternal bias.
Every criticism feels impossible to write.
I wondered whether I should write this review at all.
Then I realised something.
If Jade wasn’t my daughter, I’d still want to tell people about this album.
Because Alchemy isn’t simply a collection of songs.
It’s the moment a musician stops interpreting other people’s stories and finally has the confidence to tell her own.
I’ve watched Jade sing for almost her entire life.
In truth, she never really gave us much choice.
At the age of two she famously decided to perform in the middle of a church service, despite nobody asking her to. Family gatherings, pubs, rehearsals and gigs all became her stage. Music wasn’t something she learned; it was something she seemed to arrive with.
Over the next twenty-four years she quietly built a reputation as one of Merseyside’s most respected musicians, working with bands including The Gary Murphy Band, Eclipse – The Pink Floyd Experience and Court & Spark – The Joni Mitchell Experience. She has performed alongside Liverpool legends including Gerry Marsden, Liverpool Express, The Searchers, The Swinging Blue Jeans, The Undertakers and Captain Beefheart’s Magic Band.
But wonderful as those experiences were…
She was still singing someone else’s songs.
Then the world stopped.
Like so many artists, lockdown stripped everything back.
No gigs.
No audiences.
No distractions.
For Jade, it became an opportunity to sit quietly with a guitar, a notebook and her own thoughts.
What emerged was Alchemy.
It isn’t an album full of obvious commercial singles.
It isn’t trying to chase fashions.
It’s something far braver than that.
It’s honest.
Listening to it feels less like hearing a performer and more like reading somebody’s diary.
One of the songs that stayed with me long after the album finished was Trauma.
Rather than dwelling on the event itself, Jade explores what happens afterwards; the silence, the denial and eventually the healing that comes from finally talking about it.
It’s beautifully written, painfully honest and, I suspect, something many listeners will recognise in themselves.
Perfectly Imperfect tackles another subject that feels painfully relevant.
In a world where filtered perfection has become the norm, Jade celebrates the very things most of us spend our lives trying to hide.
The scars.
The imperfections.
The parts that make us human.
It’s impossible not to admire the vulnerability behind the lyrics.
Then there’s Storm.
Perhaps my favourite story on the album.
Jade wrote the lyrics as a seventeen-year-old lying alone in a cornfield in Poland, with Metallica blasting through her headphones.
Over the years the song wore many different musical outfits. Country. R&B. Even dance music.
The one thing that never changed was the lyric.
Listening now, she says she hears the innocence of her younger self.
So do I.
The title track, Alchemy, offers a welcome change of mood.
It’s warm, hopeful and quietly romantic.
Jade describes it as the first genuine love song she’s ever written, and you can hear the contentment running through every line.
It feels like sunlight after rain.
One of the biggest surprises for me, however, is I Serve Only Me.
Anyone who knows Jade knows she has inherited a healthy dose of theatricality. This song embraces it completely. Playful, dramatic and packed with hidden meanings, it feels like someone finally giving themselves permission to stop seeking approval and simply enjoy being exactly who they are.
It’s impossible to listen without smiling.
What impressed me most about Alchemy wasn’t the musicianship, although it’s exceptional.
Nor was it Jade’s voice, which effortlessly moves between tenderness and power.
It was the songwriting.
These aren’t songs written to impress.
They’re songs written because they needed to be.
That honesty runs through every track.
This album doesn’t pretend to have all the answers.
Instead, it asks questions about love, identity, faith, recovery, self-worth and forgiveness.
Questions many of us spend our whole lives trying to answer.
Perhaps that’s why the album feels so personal.
It isn’t simply Jade telling us her story.
She somehow leaves enough space for us to hear our own.
I’ll admit something.
When Jade first started performing professionally, I was proud because she was my daughter.
Listening to Alchemy made me proud for an entirely different reason.
I wasn’t hearing my little girl anymore.
I was hearing a songwriter.
And that’s a very different thing.
Alchemy was released on 22 February 2022 and is available through Jade’s website.
If you get the opportunity to hear these songs performed live, take it.
I certainly will.
Just don’t be surprised if you spot one proud mum in the audience trying very hard not to cry.