Steven Umoh, the Nigerian-born, London-based artist known as Obongjayar, has spent the last few years carving out a space that’s resolutely his own. He’s a product of a self-contained weather system, his voice a magnetic, shape-shifting force, one moment a gravelly incantation, the next a silken croon. After the critical embrace of his 2022 debut, Some Nights I Dream of Doors, which snagged an Ivor Novello, the anticipation for its follow-up, Paradise Now, has been a low hum beneath the surface of UK music, promising further explorations of his Afro-soul-electronica-whatever-else-he-feels alchemy. And on “Holy Mountain,” that promise finds a particularly radiant expression.

“Holy Mountain” is a pure distillation of Obongjayar’s unique approach to the love song. The artist has always had a knack for writing about love in ways that feel both mythic and deeply, almost embarrassingly, personal. He’s proven time and again, from earlier romantic inclinations like “Tinko Tinko (Don’t Play Me for a Fool)” to the flirtatious “Sweetness,” “Gone Girl,” and more, that he possesses a rare gift for articulating the complexities of affection. Moreso he understands that love, in its purest form, demands vulnerability and trust. “Would you put your faith in my hands?” he asks on this track, inviting a reciprocal surrender. Obongjayar particularly does quite well on this record, riding the aching beats with some deft emotional execution. The result is a deeply moving love song to lose yourself in.

He could be on the brink of something even more profound with this project; something to take the compelling artist from respected niche to wider acclaim. If he keeps mining these depths, there’s no telling what more he could unearth. And seeing the lengths to which his artistry has already evolved, that would be extra motivation for the gifted storyteller.