2012–present: Avril Lavigne

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, with a release date rumored for sometime in 2012. Lavigne explained, "Goodbye Lullaby was more mellow, [but] the next one will be pop and more fun again. I already have a song that I know is going to be a single, I just need to re-record it!" In late 2011, Lavigne confirmed that she had moved to Epic Records, which is now headed by L.A. Reid.

In November 2011, Lavigne stated that she entered the studio to start recording new songs for the album. In April 2012, Lavigne confirmed that she had completed the recording process on her fifth album and that she would be taking a short hiatus before releasing it and embarking on "[her] next artistic journey". On 17 August 2012 Lavigne began finalizing work on her fifth album by starting the mixing process and laying down last minute ad-libs and backing vocals, before completely wrapping up production two days later on 19 August.

Aside from work on her new album, Lavigne contributed two cover songs to the Japanese animated film One Piece Film: Z; "How You Remind Me" by Nickelback and "Bad Reputation" by Joan Jett.
On 9 April 2013, the lead single from Lavigne's upcoming fifth studio album "Here's to Never Growing Up", produced by Martin Johnson of the band Boys Like Girls, was released. Chart-wise, the track peaked at #20 on Billboard Hot 100 in the US, as well as the Top 20 in Australia and the UK and the Top 10 in Ireland and Japan. The second single "Rock N Roll" premiered on Lavigne's official YouTube channel on 18 July 2013 and was released on 27 August.

In an interview with Ryan Seacrest in April 2013, Lavigne confirmed that she was still in the recording process of the album, saying "I'm actually still in the studio, I'm still making my record. I still have one more song left to write that I'm going to do by myself, because I love to do that, it's important for me." In another interview with Digital Spy, Lavigne commented that she had written so many songs for her upcoming album that she was considering to issue two back-to-back albums instead of a singular release.

In July 2013, the title of Lavigne's upcoming fifth studio album was announced to be eponymous in her name and is set to be released on 5 November 2013. Lavigne later revealed the cover art for the album on 8 August via her Instagram account.