diff --git a/beetsplug/lyrics.py b/beetsplug/lyrics.py
index 3e03bd224..05d3ea53f 100644
--- a/beetsplug/lyrics.py
+++ b/beetsplug/lyrics.py
@@ -782,7 +782,7 @@ class LyricsPlugin(plugins.BeetsPlugin):
                         ui.print_(item.lyrics)
                     if opts.writerest:
                         self.appendrest(opts.writerest, item)
-            if opts.writerest and len(items) > 0:
+            if opts.writerest and items:
                 # flush last artist & write to ReST
                 self.writerest(opts.writerest)
                 ui.print_(u'ReST files generated. to build, use one of:')
@@ -831,7 +831,6 @@ class LyricsPlugin(plugins.BeetsPlugin):
             with open(path, 'wb') as output:
                 output.write(self.rest.encode('utf-8'))
 
-
     def writerest_indexes(self, directory):
         """Write conf.py and index.rst files necessary for Sphinx
 
diff --git a/docs/changelog.rst b/docs/changelog.rst
index 21cbd1217..691a42de5 100644
--- a/docs/changelog.rst
+++ b/docs/changelog.rst
@@ -207,6 +207,9 @@ Fixes:
 * :doc:`/plugins/lyrics`: Adapt the Genius backend to changes in markup to
   reduce the scraping failure rate.
   :bug:`3535` :bug:`3594`
+* :doc:`/plugins/lyrics`: Fix crash when writing ReST files for a query without
+  results or fetched lyrics
+  :bug:`2805`
 
 For plugin developers: