Liz Lawrence has shared her grief about her late sister on new album, ‘Vespers’, and has this week (March 30), unveiled the project’s emotive first single ‘Black Ulysses’ along with three other new songs – listen to them below.
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A statement describes ‘Vespers’ as an album “about tragedy.” It continues: “It is the record of a life and death, an act of devotion and reflection. Liz wrote the songs in the ashes of disaster.”
The record is set for release on June 5 via Chrysalis Records and is the fifth album by Liz, following ‘Peanuts’, ‘The Avalanche’, ‘Pity Party’ and ‘Bedroom Hero’. You can pre-order the album here.
The album explores the journey Lawrence went on after discovering, in the summer of 2024 while at a festival, that her sister Jessie had suffered a serious accident in Ireland. A call informed her that her sister was in intensive care and Lawrence and her brother should fly out immediately. Jessie later died, aged 35.
“What followed was the most profoundly altering period of my life,” Lawrence explains. “I learned about the beauty of the dying, the resilience of the living and the infinite fountain of love that sustains us.”
Speaking about the record, Lawrence says: “It is dedicated to my beautiful sister Jessie and her too-short life.”
‘Vespers’ was written over a period of three weeks, just six months after Jessie died. “If you want to understand the change in me, from the person who made ‘Peanuts’ to the person who wrote ‘Vespers’, then this is it. Grief changes you. I don’t recognise the person I was before,” Lawrence says.
Four songs from the album have been released by Lawrence, designed to be listened together as “an entry point” to the forthcoming album. The songs are ‘Mt. Nephin’, ‘Where Did You Go’, ‘Black Ulysses’ and ‘Sister’.
You can listen to the songs here:
Speaking about the album, Lawrence added: “The album is very specifically about my sister and my family’s situation, but equally, that is universal. It is bewildering to me that grief and death, which happen to literally all of us, are still something we keep locked away. There’s no room for it. You have to create that, and most people don’t know what to do with it, even when they’ve gone through it themselves.”
In ‘Vespers’, Lawrence says there is a strong desire to commune. “To sing is to be closer to Jessie,” Lawrence says. For months after Jessie died, Lawrence explains that she could not listen to music, and could not even switch on the radio. “I remember talking to my friend, who had recently lost his dad, and he was saying that he was using music to help him to cry…I was going through what billions of people have been through already, and somehow felt like there was nowhere for me to be. And so I went on Reddit and looked up the best grief records of all time.”
After discovering few written by women, Lawrence added: “I wanted someone to be able to say to a friend who is grieving that they should listen to ‘Vespers’. I want people to come to this record. I want people to use this record. I want it to have purpose, to give comfort and catharsis.”
To mark the release of ‘Vespers’, Lawrence will play two special intimate solo shows in Manchester and London, performing the album in its entirety. Tickets will be available via pre-sale from 10am on April 7, before going on general sale from 10am April 8. See below for the dates and you can get tickets for the shows here.
JUNE 2026
9 – International Anthony Burgess Foundation, Manchester
10 – Courtyard Theatre, London
Last year, Lawrence supported Big Special on tour alongside GANS and Good Health Good Wealth.
