Baby Nova - Shhugar (2026)

After listening to Baby Nova’s Shhugar, you’re going to know a lot more about the Nova Scotia indie-pop artist than you did going in. Part Lana Del Rey-esque Americana dream weaver, part acid-tongued Olivia Rodrigo acolyte, the songwriter born Kayleigh O’Connor spends much of her debut album navigating the treacherous minefields of lust, sex, and religion with unabashed NSFW observations and a deliciously dark sense of humor.

Baby Nova proves herself a master at pulling quotable quips out of compromising situations: Amid the candelit country-soul of “Do You Like That, Baby?,” she sings of desire in the language of faith, but tees up the chorus with a brow-raising line (“The way he bends me over/I don’t think that boy’s a Christian”) that would get her instantly excommunicated from the church, while the Stevie Nicks-styled “Death Wish” spares no X-rated detail in recounting the uneven power dynamics in a doomed tryst. But each candid confessional only hardens Baby Nova’s resolve, and with the big-screen ballad “Too Pretty for Buffalo,” she delivers an arm-swaying get-outta-town anthem for when you need to “kiss bye-bye to those bitches in the rearview.”