Neneh Cherry's stepfather was free jazz trumpeter Don Cherry.[7] The trio The Thing took their name from a track on Don Cherry's 1966 album Where Is Brooklyn?[7] Cherry "began her career in the 1980s as a teen vocalist in post-punk outfits Rip Rig & Panic and Float Up CP; both melded free jazz and angular funk."[2] Conny Lindstrom, who had produced albums by The Thing, also knew Cherry and suggested that she perform with them.[8]
Recording and music
The Cherry Thing was recorded at Harder Sound Studios in London and Atlantis Studios in Stockholm.[9]
The album contains eight tracks. The two originals are "Sudden Moment" by Gustafsson and "Cashback" by Cherry.[2] The nine-minute version of Suicide's "Dream Baby Dream" "is no less ethereal than the original, but far more sinister; Cherry [...] keeps the beautiful melodic core intact, even as she becomes ever more insistent, showing her dominant authority. Her accompanists build a gorgeous wall of atmospheric tension behind her".[2]Martina Topley-Bird's "Too Tough to Die" "begins sparsely and slowly before Cherry and Gustafsson enter and begin pushing, [...] Cherry's vocal is emboldened with risk, turning the melody in on itself and ululating against the baritone horn. The rhythm sections answers with syncopated breaks and funk."[2]MF Doom's "Accordion" and the Stooges' "Dirt" "are sparse, threatening, and poignant, the former tinged with implied violence, and the latter [...] smolders with raw, dark sensuality."[2] Don Cherry's "Golden Heart" is "an otherworldly meld of Middle Eastern modes and textures and a skeletal lyric frame that displays this group's command of diverse musical languages."[2] On Ornette Coleman's "What Reason", the "nearly mournful presentation, with gorgeous jazz singing by Cherry and restrained yet adventurous soloing by Gustafsson and Håker Flaten, make the tune drip with longing."[2]
Release
The album was released on 19 June 2012.[2] It peaked at number 16 on the Billboard Jazz Albums chart.[10]
Reception
BBC reviewer John Doran stated that the recording was "one of the most enjoyable and original albums of the year".[11]John Fordham of The Guardian commented that the music "dramatically bridges the singer's avant-pop world and the flat-out sax-howling, percussion-thundering soundscape the group have been poleaxing audiences with since 2000."[6] Ben Ratliff of The New York Times wrote that the intentional contrast between Cherry's tenderness and the band's loud aggression sometimes became unbalanced in favour of the latter.[12]
