diff --git a/mopidy_iris/core.py b/mopidy_iris/core.py
index 26a63cd3..399dd915 100755
--- a/mopidy_iris/core.py
+++ b/mopidy_iris/core.py
@@ -1056,7 +1056,7 @@ class IrisCore(pykka.ThreadingActor):
     # passing token to frontend for javascript requests without use of the Authorization Code Flow.
     ##
 
-    def get_lyrics(self, *args, **kwargs):
+    async def get_lyrics(self, *args, **kwargs):
         callback = kwargs.get('callback', False)
         request = kwargs.get('request', False)
         error = False
@@ -1089,15 +1089,19 @@ class IrisCore(pykka.ThreadingActor):
             }
 
         if error:
-            if (callback):
-                callback(False, error)
-                return
-            else:
-                return error
+            return error
+    
+        try:
+            http_client = AsyncHTTPClient()
+            http_response = await http_client.fetch(url)
+            callback(http_response, False)
 
-        http_request = tornado.httpclient.HTTPRequest(url)
-        http_client = tornado.httpclient.HTTPClient()
-        http_client.fetch(http_request, callback=callback)
+        except (urllib.error.HTTPError, urllib.error.URLError) as e:
+            error = json.loads(e.read())
+            error = {'message': 'Could not fetch Spotify recommendations: '+error['error_description']}
+            logger.error('Could not fetch Spotify recommendations: '+error['error_description'])
+            logger.debug(error)
+            return error
 
 
     ##
diff --git a/mopidy_iris/handlers.py b/mopidy_iris/handlers.py
index fc4590f4..08a3245c 100755
--- a/mopidy_iris/handlers.py
+++ b/mopidy_iris/handlers.py
@@ -201,6 +201,9 @@ class HttpHandler(tornado.web.RequestHandler):
             'method': method
         }
 
+        print(response)
+        print(error)
+
         if error:
             request_response['error'] = error
             self.set_status(400)
@@ -209,7 +212,7 @@ class HttpHandler(tornado.web.RequestHandler):
         # We've been handed an AsyncHTTPClient callback. This is the case
         # when our request calls subsequent external requests (eg Spotify, Genius).
         # We don't need to wrap non-HTTPResponse responses as these are dicts
-        elif isinstance(response, tornado.httpclient.HTTPResponse):
+        elif isinstance(response, tornado.httpclient.HTTPResponse) or isinstance(response, tornado.httpclient.AsyncHTTPResponse):
 
             # Digest JSON responses into JSON
             content_type = response.headers.get('Content-Type')