Synopsis

Neneh Cherry performs in extreme close-up against a stark, dark setting while the Four Tet remix of "Dream Baby Dream" builds around her. Her face shifts between calm, intensity, and defiance as brightly colored rubber bands stretch, snap, and move through the frame. Razor blades appear among the abstract objects, adding a sharp and unsettling counterpoint to the song's hypnotic repetition. The video is less a narrative than a tactile performance piece, turning Cherry's commanding presence and the track's tense electronic pulse into a strange, playful visual experiment.

Factoids & Trivia

• The video is associated with the Four Tet remix rather than the original album recording of "Dream Baby Dream." The remix reshapes Neneh Cherry and The Thing's free-jazz interpretation into a more beat-driven electronic track.

• "Dream Baby Dream" is a cover of the 1979 song by the New York duo Suicide, written by Alan Vega and Martin Rev.

• The central visual materials are rubber bands and razor blades. The rubber bands supply color, elasticity, and motion, while the blades introduce a deliberately dangerous edge to the otherwise playful imagery.

• Cherry is filmed almost entirely at close range, making her expressions and physical presence the main performance. The approach avoids a conventional story and instead responds directly to the remix's repetitive, escalating structure.

• The clip runs for approximately four minutes and appeared in June 2012, close to the release of The Cherry Thing, the collaborative album by Cherry and the Scandinavian trio The Thing.

• The Thing consisted of Mats Gustafsson on saxophone, Ingebrigt Haker Flaten on bass, and Paal Nilssen-Love on drums. Their highly improvised playing gives the original cover a much harsher character than the comparatively streamlined remix used in the video.

• The Cherry Thing was built largely around reinterpretations, including songs associated with Suicide, the Stooges, MF Doom, and Martina Topley-Bird. "Dream Baby Dream" became one of the project's most visible introductions.