Lady Antebellum is officially hard at work on their fourth studio album, the follow-up to their 2011 platinum effort ‘Own the Night.’ Leading lady Hillary Scott took to her official Twitter account on Monday (Aug. 20) to express her elation over commencing the creative process on the highly-anticipated next album.

“GUESS WHAT?!?!? Album 4 is in the works! Day 1 in the studio for pre-production! Here we go!!!!” an enthusiastic Scott tweeted.

It seems as though the reigning CMA and ACM Vocal Group of the Year is methodical in the creation of their new album, with Scott telling Billboard as early as February that the trio had already begun the song selection process. At the time, the Grammy Award-winning group had 12 songs lined up for the project.

“We’re going to take our time with this one,” admits Scott, “because ['Own the Night'], as proud as we are of it, we all feel like we rushed it a little bit. So we’re going to just settle in and write and write and write. We may try to go in [to the studio] at some point this year, just to try some things, but honestly it’s hard to tell. We’re going to really wait until we’re ready.”

It’s unclear whether the trio penned their own songs or selected them from outside songwriters, but it’s a fair assumption that the next Lady Antebellum album will embody a happy tone, given the band members’ blissful personal lives. It’s the first time in four albums that all three members of the trio are married during the recording process — a recent happening for both Scott and Dave Haywood, who each married their respective partners within the past year.

The next album will have big footsteps to fill after ‘Own the Night,’ which features the No. 1 singles ‘Just a Kiss’ and ‘We Owned the Night.’ The project has been certified platinum — signifying sales in excess of one million units — and was named Album of the Year earlier this year during the 2011 ACM Awards ceremony. To date, Lady Antebellum has won seven Grammy Awards and has sold more than 17 million albums and digital singles.

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