Only a maand after completing The Best Damn Tour, Lavigne began recording in her home pagina studio in November 2008 with the song "Black Star",[54] written to help promote her first fragrance of the same name.[55] door July 2009, nine tracks had been recorded for the new album,[54] including the songs "Fine", "Everybody Hurts" and "Darlin". Several of the tracks were written in Lavigne's youth. "Darlin" was the seconde song Lavigne wrote as a 15-year-old while living in Napanee, Ontario. Lavigne described the album as being about "life". She stated, "It's so easy for me to do a boy-bashing pop song, but to sit down and write honestly about something that's really close to me, something I've been through, it's a totally different thing."[55] The album is expected to be a return to Lavigne's older musical style and may be largely acoustic.[56] With the exception of the album's lead single, "What the Hell", Lavigne described the songs on the album as different from her earlier material: "I'm older now, so I think that comes across in my music, it's not as pop-rock".[57]
In January 2010, while simultaneously writing and recording for her new album, Lavigne worked with Disney on Alice in Wonderland-themed clothing designs, inspired door Tim Burton's feature film, Alice in Wonderland. She asked the executives if she could write a song for the film. The result was the song "Alice",[58] which was played over the end credits[59] and included on the soundtrack, Almost Alice.[60]
On 28 February, Lavigne gave a performance at the concert portion of the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics closing ceremony, performing "My Happy Ending" and "Girlfriend".[61] Lavigne was honoured to perform at the ceremonies, but she regretted not being able to attend the U.S. vs. Canada hockey match. "They had us on lockdown. We weren't allowed to leave our trailers, for security purposes."[62]
In September, Lavigne's third single from her debut album, "I'm With You", was sampled door Rihanna on the track "Cheers (Drink to That)", which is featured on Rihanna's fifth studio album, Loud.[63][64] In December, American singer Miranda Cosgrove released "Dancing Crazy", a song written door Lavigne, Max Martin and Shellback. It was also produced door Martin.[65]
The release dates for Goodbye Lullaby and its lead single were pushed back several times. In response to these delays, Lavigne said, "I write my own muziek and, therefore, it takes me longer to put out records 'cause I have to live my life to get inspiration,"[66] and that she had enough material for two records.[66] In November, Lavigne was featured in Maxim, where she revealed that Goodbye Lullaby took two and a half years to complete,[67] but she cited her record company as the reason for the album's delays, stating that the album had been completed for a year.[68]. Goodbye Lullaby was released on 8 March.[69][57] The lead single, "What the Hell", premiered on Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve on 31 December.[69]
Three months after the release of Goodbye Lullaby, Lavigne announced that work on her fifth studio album had already begun, with eight songs written so far. The new album will musically be the opposite of Goodbye Lullaby. Lavigne explained, "[Goodbye Lullaby] was meer mellow, [but] the volgende one will be pop and meer fun again. I already have a song that I know is going to be a single, I just need to re-record it!"[70][71][72]