Vulnerability is new territory for Avril Lavigne, who's normally seen as a feisty pop-punk princess, too cool to let any boy break her heart.

But on her new single, Wish You Were Here, the Canadian singer is full of regret and longing for the guy (ex-husband?) who's no longer around. Although a far cry from the boy-bashing romp of the album's first single, What the Hell, the new song is a fairly accurate representation of the songwriting vibe on this year's album Goodbye Lullaby.

 

"Throughout this album, there are some real vulnerable moments where I didn't hold back when it came to writing, just because I wanted it to be real. I wanted it to move somebody," Lavigne said in a recent interview, admitting she had some initial trepidation about baring so much of her soul.

 

"Some of the songs I didn't want to put on the record, and my girlfriends made me," explains the singer. "They were their favourites. When I played these songs for my friends and family, sometimes they would cry. I've never really had that for my songs before."This is Lavigne's fourth studio album, and the first since her divorce from Sum 41's Deryck Whibley.

 

"Goodbye Lullaby really just represents closing a chapter in life and opening a new one. Personal growth, moving forward," Lavigne says, neatly evading the breakup details. "It's really just about growth and changes, in regards to different emotions we all have in life. Becoming older. The whole message is bittersweet; it's positive. It's about getting through what you have to get through."

 

Getting older and realizing she's been in the music business for a decade motivated Lavigne, now 27, to take a different approach. She even tried her hand at producing a couple of the album's tracks.

 

"I didn't want to make exactly the same record. There's a side of me, I like to have fun with my music and rock out, and a lot of the lyrics are lighter subjects," she says. "But I'm a woman now, I'm a singer, I'm a songwriter and I wanted to touch on that area a little more."

 

Still, fans will be happy to hear she shows both sides of her musical personality on tour. "The tour represents me in general as a musician," Lavigne says. "I play all my old songs, all the uptempo pop-rock stuff, but there's also more intimate, stripped-down moments in the show."