Lulu thinks her new album is ''outrageous''.

The 66-year-old singer's latest record, entitled 'Making Life Rhyme', is the first in which she's been involved in all aspects of writing and production, and Lulu admits she was a little daunted to have taken complete ownership of her work at such a late stage of her career.

Reflecting on her strikingly honest new album, Lulu said: ''It's nuts, to think I'm doing this, at this age! It's a first for me, at 66. It's kind of outrageous. It's scary, in fact, if I think of it like that. I should have started writing when I was young, that was a big mistake, but it feels like it fits so well now.

''I've found a way to deal with the things that have driven me. I've always tried not to be vulnerable and this is allowing me to open up, in a way. I feel like I've grown up. And yet, the opposite is true, I feel like I'm just beginning.''

What's more, Lulu refuses to accept that her new album has a gloomy tone and instead says it's ''about living in the solution''.

She told the Sunday Telegraph newspaper: ''I can go down. I've got that dark Celtic angst.

''But I don't want to write songs crying about how tough things are. My songs are really about going beyond the problems. They're about living in the solution.''