Lennon Stella has been immersed in the music business for as long as she can remember: Her parents were a country duo who performed as The Stellas and relocated the family from small-town Ontario to Nashville. Meanwhile, a teenage Stella and her younger sister Maisy went viral in 2012 for their homespun cover of Robyn’s “Call Your Girlfriend” and went on to spend the next six years starring as fictional sisters on the ABC/CMT musical drama series Nashville. Since those days, the elder Stella has taken her time to carve out her identity as a solo musician. Now 27, the former child star took the six years since her debut album, 2020’s Three. Two. One., to patiently hone her sound from straightforward pop/R&B to intimate, writerly folk tunes, drawing inspiration from often-overlooked visionaries like Connie Converse and Nick Drake. Produced by Andy Shauf of the Saskatchewan indie rock band Foxwarren, with co-writing credits from Simon Wilcox and Ethan Gruska, Stella’s sophomore album Sleeping Lion probes the complexities of relationships—yearning for the rosy honeymoon phase on “Beginner’s Mind” or performing for someone’s approval in vain on “Ta Da” (“Tap dancing in my sequined shoes/And you don’t even realise I’m putting on a show for you”). Elsewhere are snarky missives to a mansplainer (“Smartest Person in the Room”), hushed breakup ballads (“Comedy Show”) and “If She’ll Let Me”, a nuanced portrait of the love that remained after her parents’ divorce.