People say there are no words, but there are thousands': Liz Lawrence on making a new kind of grief album after her sister's death

After her sister Jessie died suddenly in 2024, Liz Lawrence could not listen to music or engage with her work. She gradually returned through female vocalists and sought songs that allowed contemplation, reflection, and sadness. A search for grief albums led to many rock and metal records dominated by men and anger, while she wanted plain-speaking despair. Vespers, her fifth album, is a direct tribute to Jessie, written during a three-week burst of creativity six months after the accident. The album replaces earlier muscular indie pop with elegiac, stripped-back folk and delicate string arrangements. Heartache appears throughout, from funeral-like imagery to personal memories and feelings.

"It's there on the sparse Exploded Into Flowers, which recalls the uncanny pageantry of a funeral, or via the relatable memories (Making you laugh was in my top five feelings) conjured up on the poignant Sister. I had no intentions for the album at all, Lawrence, 35, says, nursing a half pint of Guinness in a pub in Birmingham, not far from where she lives with her partner and their dog. It's simply wanting there to be a space,"

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