Lauryn Hill: 'It's time for a new album'

Lauryn Hill has revealed that "it's time" to release her new album.

The singer, whose last LP The Miseducation Of Lauryn Hill was released in 1998, admitted that she has the drive for success again after a recent string of live performances.

Hill told MTV: "I have to upgrade [songs] a bit so that they're still exciting, fresh and new. I'm not sure if the audience really understands.

"We need, or at least I need, a certain amount of spontaneity, a certain amount of improvisation at every show... It's that unknown, that literal X factor that makes every show different, and something I want to continue to do."

Of her long absence from the music industry, she explained: "There's been such a long period of time where I haven't been able to communicate where my mind is, where my consciousness is, where my ideas are.

"This is an athletic discipline. You gotta be in shape to do it mentally, emotionally, spiritually, physically. But it's time."

Hill's debut album sold over eight million copies worldwide.