Nashville’s Abby Nissenbaum channels longing, desire, and emotional uncertainty into “Naomi,” a soulful, smoldering torch song laced with lush keys and a stirring, close-up vocal performance that captures the ache of wanting someone who may never fully choose you.

Stream: “Naomi” – Abby Nissenbaum

Desire takes shape in the questions we can’t shake –

– the ones that loop late at night, circling absence, distance, and the fragile hope that connection might still take hold.

It lives in the ache of wanting someone to choose you fully, without hesitation, and in the restless spiral of trying to understand why they won’t. Singer/songwriter Abby Nissenbaum leans into that emotional unraveling with striking clarity on her latest single, tracing the fault lines between longing and doubt until they blur into one charged, all-consuming feeling. “Naomi” holds that tension in place – a smoky, slow-burning confession that turns yearning into something vivid, intimate, and impossible to ignore.

Naomi, why’d you get anywhere near me
If you did not plan on staying
You know I’m tired and lonely
Lonely

Naomi, and if you’re sincerely asking
I just wish you were the last one
You know I want it to last, oh
Last, oh

Atwood Magazine is proud to be premiering “Naomi,” a soulful and seductive outpouring of raw, visceral aching. The brooding track arrives as the third single off her upcoming EP, following a growing body of work that has steadily carved out her space as one of Nashville’s most compelling emerging voices – a classically-trained soprano and former musical theater performer whose path through social psychology and data analytics ultimately led her back to music with renewed purpose and perspective. Since the release of her 2023 debut EP Unreliable Narrator, Nissenbaum has drawn international acclaim from outlets including GLAAD, Wonderland, Earmilk, and Clash, her emotive, radiant vocal performances anchoring a sound that bridges indie, alt-rock, and soul with striking individuality.

“‘Naomi’ is the third single from my upcoming EP and a sultry, Sapphic take on a torch song,” Nissenbaum tells Atwood Magazine. “The song was, funnily enough, loosely inspired by a random episode of Emily in Paris that my mom was watching when I was home around Christmastime.”

She adds, “To really lean into the campiness, I added some elements of yé-yé, even including lyrical turns of phrase that seem innocent at first listen but could have a sharper edge if you read into them. To add another, more unique layer to the ‘60s yé-yé / rock element, my producer also added a really fun trombone solo at the end of the song, which just adds to the sultriness (and drama) of the whole composition.”

Is it that I’m not your type
Do you want day and I’m night
Is it that we come from different tongues
But between us, all we’d need is one
Is it that I’m in the States
I would fly to see your face
Naomi

Lush keys spill out from the opening moments, setting a smoky, late-night atmosphere that feels both intimate and cinematic.

The arrangement moves with intention – tasteful, brushed drums keep a steady pulse while subdued guitar lines flicker at the edges, adding texture without ever pulling focus. At the center, Nissenbaum’s voice arrives close and unguarded, every note delivered with a sense of immediacy that makes the performance feel almost tactile. She sings like she’s right up against the mic, letting each breath and inflection carry weight, her phrasing stretching and softening in ways that mirror the friction at the heart of the song. It’s a careful balance of control and release, where restraint only deepens the emotional impact.

That tension takes hold in the opening verse, where longing meets quiet desperation: “Naomi, why’d you get anywhere near me / If you did not plan on staying / You know I’m tired and lonely.” The questions land with a mix of vulnerability and frustration, circling the same unanswerable core – why initiate something you won’t see through? As the verse unfolds, that uncertainty evolves into a deeper ache, Nissenbaum admitting, “I just wish you were the last one / You know I want it to last.” There’s a weariness threaded through these lines, the sense of someone who has been here before and is bracing for the same outcome, even as they hope for something different. By the time the pre-chorus begins to crest, the emotional stakes are already fully established – a push and pull between guarded self-awareness and the undeniable pull of desire, hanging in the air just before the song opens up into its central refrain.

Naomi, I know that you barely know me
But I think this could be something
If you’d only let it be
Let it be

Naomi, dragging this out by its entrails
No need to litigate details
When I know that it would not fail
Not fail

When the chorus hits, the song opens up in full – Nissenbaum’s voice rising into a raw, unrestrained wail as the band swells beneath her with added weight, fuel, and fervor. The drums strike with more force, the keys broaden into a fuller, more enveloping wash, and the guitar steps forward just enough to give the moment a heightened depth. Everything lifts, surges, and presses forward in tandem, mirroring the urgency of the questions she can no longer keep contained. “Is it that I’m not your type / Do you want day and I’m night / Is it that we come from different tongues / But between us, all we’d need is one” – each line lands like both a plea and a reckoning, her voice stretching around the words as if searching for an answer in real time.

There’s a striking duality in how she delivers it: Aching and assertive all at once, circling doubt while still reaching outward with conviction. The distance between them becomes tangible – geography, language, identity – yet she cuts through each barrier with the same insistence, culminating in that final, unfiltered admission: “I would fly to see your face.” It’s a moment of total emotional exposure, where possibility and heartbreak exist side by side, and where the song’s central question lingers long after the last note fades: How far are you willing to go for someone who might never meet you halfway?

But tell me
Is it that I’m not your type
Do you want day and I’m night
Is it that we come from different tongues
But between us, all we’d need is one
Is it that I’m in the States
I would fly to see your face
Naomi, give me a taste

“Naomi” lingers because it commits fully to feeling – to the mess, the yearning, the unanswered questions that rarely resolve as neatly as we’d like.

Nissenbaum doesn’t rush toward clarity or closure; she lets the uncertainty breathe, shaping it into a performance that feels both timeless and strikingly immediate. The fusion of vintage yé-yé flair with modern R&B sensibilities gives the song a distinct character, while that final trombone flourish adds just enough theatricality to underline its emotional stakes. It’s a piece that understands the drama of desire – how it swells, how it aches, how it refuses to be rational – and translates that into a listening experience that feels immersive from start to finish.

With “Naomi,” Abby Nissenbaum offers a portrait of longing that is as vivid as it is vulnerable, capturing the push and pull of connection with remarkable poise and intensity. As anticipation builds for her forthcoming EP, the single stands as a powerful statement of intent – one that invites listeners to sit with their own questions, their own what-ifs, and the moments that continue to echo long after they’ve passed.

Stream “Naomi” exclusively on Atwood Magazine, and let Nissenbaum pull you into her intimate, all-consuming orbit.

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