Gig review: Lissie at The Leadmill, Sheffield

Three albums later and Lissie is back with her fourth studio record ‘Castles’, a dreamy 13 tracks of synth, folk influences, catchy pop and Lissie’s powerhouse vocals.

Leaving her rural farm in Northeastern Iowa, Lissie kicked off her Castles tour with a solo show at The Leadmill, Sheffield. The gig was a suitably laid-back affair with Lissie starting the evening supping from a glass of wine and casually announcing, “I am going to play a bunch of songs.” Very in keeping with the Lissie of social media who blends photos of her album hitting Number 9 in the charts with shots of knitted homemade socks.

With acoustic guitar in hand, Lissie launches into ‘Hero’ – a hit from her third album, ‘My Wild West’. As she drives into the chorus of “I could’ve been a hero/ I could’ve been a zero/ I could’ve been all these things” her beautiful vocals become the second instrument on stage. The crowd sing and sway along, clutching their own glasses of wine and shouting out requests in between songs.

Now 35, Lissie recounts the struggles she has encountered over the past 10 years whilst navigating the music industry. In ‘Sleepwalking’ she laments “I woke up at the foot of my bed/ With my blue jeans on and you stuck in my head” whilst ‘They all want you’ details the fickle nature of lovers when you’re a “star”.

But by the time she belts out “’Cause the best days of my life are coming for me” from new single ‘Best Days’ it becomes clear that Lissie is finally in a place where she knows who she is and what she wants.