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Classic Recordings: “Obsidian” by NAOMI SHARON (DEBUT)

The first woman signed to OVO Sound made a debut album with almost no drums on it. Thirteen tracks of deliberate, unhurried refusal to do the expected thing.

Obsidian

Released in October 2023, Obsidian was Naomi Sharon's first album and an unusual calling card for a label built on Drake's brand of glossy, competitive R&B. The Rotterdam singer — Aruban and Dutch heritage, trained at the Academy of Theatre and Dance, a former musical theatre performer — arrived with something closer to an art record: long, slow, harmonically ambiguous, and built around a low alto that never once raises itself for effect.

The title is well chosen. Obsidian is volcanic glass: black, reflective, formed under enormous heat and pressure. The record has exactly that quality — a smooth, dark surface with a great deal of force behind it.

What to listen for

"Definition of Love" opens the album and remains the track that converts people. Listen to how long she holds notes without vibrato; the stillness is the whole technique.

"Another Life" and "Celestial" are the most atmospheric pieces, closer to ambient music than to R&B, and they demonstrate how much of this record is carried by texture rather than by hooks.

"Push" with Omah Lay is the one concession to a conventional feature, and it works because the two of them share a taste for singing behind the beat — neither is in any hurry.

"Myrrh" and "Time And Trust" carry the album's spiritual vocabulary; myrrh is a resin used in anointing and burial, which tells you something about the register she is working in. "Lucid Dreamer" and "Holding In Place" sit at its most interior.

The "Outro (If This Is Love)" with Beau Nox returns to the album's second track and closes the loop. This is sequenced as a single piece; playing it on shuffle destroys most of what it is doing.

Go deeper

The Only Love We Know (2025) and the Live From Paradiso set are the natural follow-ups — the live recordings in particular reveal how much low end and space a band adds to material this spare.

The Sade comparison is unavoidable and, for once, useful: Love Deluxe is the record that established that a voice this restrained could carry an entire album. Cleo Sol and Nao are the closest British parallels.

And it is worth noticing what Obsidian did to OVO Sound. A label associated with a very particular sound signed something considerably stranger, and the roster's centre of gravity has shifted quietly since.

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