Avril Lavigne Is Working Hard, Bitch...

07/27/09 5:21pm

by Bianca Marcus (CHARTattack)

...on her new record, that is.

Avril Lavigne is currently in the studio working on her fourth album, which she plans to release Nov. 17.

The singer began recording last November with the song fragment "Black Star," meant for the commercial advertising her fragrance of the same name. She didn't plan to start a new album, though.

"It just happened," the singer told Entertainment Weekly. "I made a record without even feeling like I made a record.

"I'm sitting on the piano writing in the foyer, and [husband and Sum 41 singer/guitarist Deryck Whibley is] in the studio, and it's like, 'Hey. I like that.'"

Lavigne has found a convenient resource in Whibley, who used the couple's home studio in Tarzana, Calif. to produce eight out of the nine songs she has recorded for the upcoming album.

Two track names have been released so far. The first is called "Everybody Hurts," and the second, titled "Darlin'," is a love song penned by Lavigne when she was 15 years old. Let's hope the first isn't an R.E.M. cover.

The album will include two additional previously unreleased songs written by Lavigne — one she wrote at age 17, and the other when she was 20.

Lavigne is making sure to keep the stress level to a minimum leading up to the album's release.

"My new word right now is 'balance.' Work hard, play hard," she says. "Maybe that should be the album cover: Work Hard, Play Hard... Bitch."

She's not sacrificing youth for wisdom, though.

"I'm turning 25 this year. 25, but not 35!

"Half of me is really older-acting and the other half is a young spirit. When I'm really old, I think I'll be crazy, and have a young spirit and be fun. But yeah. I am an adult. But sometimes I still feel like I'm 19.

"Sometimes I still dress like I'm 19. I don't think I'll ever be super mad sophisticated. I think I'll always be like this."

Yay?