When her sibling died in an accident the singer-songwriter sought comfort in music. But after finding that the most celebrated records about loss were angry, loud and male, she set about creating something very different<\/p>\n
In the months after her sister\u2019s death, singer-songwriter Liz Lawrence couldn\u2019t even listen to music, let alone play it. \u201cI was very much, \u2018That\u2019s in the past and I don\u2019t know what\u2019s going to be asked of me now,\u2019\u201d she says. \u201cI\u00a0didn\u2019t think about my work. I wasn\u2019t interested. I didn\u2019t have any appetite for it.\u201d After slowly gravitating back to\u00a0music via female vocalists such as Lisa O\u2019Neill, Adrianne Lenker and Joanna Newsom, and as the time afforded to grieving was squeezed out\u00a0by a life still ongoing, Lawrence realised she needed songs that allowed her to return to that \u201cspace of contemplation, reflection and sadness\u201d.<\/p>\n
She quickly searched out a Reddit thread of the best grief albums of all time, only to find a lengthy list of very specific rock and metal records chiefly made by men. \u201cI was just looking for open and frank sadness,\u201d she says, as opposed to the anger broiling within the suggested albums. That plain-speaking despair permeates Lawrence\u2019s beautiful fifth album, Vespers, an unvarnished tribute to elder sister Jessie, who died suddenly in 2024 following an accident while on holiday with her partner and two small children in Ireland.<\/p>\n
![](\"https:\/\/i.guim.co.uk\/img\/media\/a7b569b6bfe281ddfbdab121ec22a6c53c11c573\/203_276_919_735\/master\/919.jpg?width=140&quality=85&auto=format&fit=max&s=169e337a989ecf24ad913e266b0e5937\" "\\"\u2018People")
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