Henry Green’s stunning cover brings a sultry and subtle tone to Sade’s timeless classic ‘Sweetest Taboo’. The stripped back vocals, acoustic arrangement, lulliby-esque instrumentaion and building atmospherics are a dream to produce a video for.

When I first heard Henry’s version I completely fell in love. I grew up listening to Sade and the original so it brought me to a place of notalgia with Henry’s unique take and touch. Henry and I spoke about the idea of shooting a video but realised that based on a restrictive release schedule and the restrictions in place due to the pandemic, we needed to find an alternative.

The concept centres around an abstract, dreamlike sultry connection with each of the actors in the lyric video, reflecting on the lyrics of the record. The natural overlays of cloud, water, filmic textures and 3:4 aspect ratio are an ode to the track’s original era of release in 1985.

Directed + Edited by Josh Aarons

Cover by: Henry Green

Original by: Sade