Lauryn Hill may be close to releasing new album

This is the sort of news for which the phrase “cautiously optimistic” was created.

Lauryn Hill may be releasing a follow-up to 1998’s “The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill.” Finally. If the planets and the stars align, and everything is perfect, and Hill finds herself willing to let go and press the proverbial button … we could have new music from Hill, according to The Fader:

“Since 2010, she has been working quietly and diligently on a new album and a host of politically minded film projects. She began touring again five years ago as a way of exercising artistic muscle and financing her recording plans, says Phil Nicolo, one of her current producers and a founder of Ruffhouse, the Fugees’ original label. According to Nicolo, she is closer than ever to finishing the follow-up to Miseducation. And thanks to her involvement in a documentary about the late Nina Simone — perhaps her greatest forebear — Hill is on the brink of a genuine comeback. With world politics dovetailing with pop culture in an unprecedented way, there couldn’t be a better time.”

Real talk: We were almost afraid to write and publish this story in the event that it somehow disturbs the equilibrium in the universe necessary for such an event to occur and now, somehow, we’ve set the entire project back several months just by discussing its existence in the first place.

Recently, Hill recorded six covers for the “What Happened, Miss Simone?” soundtrack. She is, in spirit and ability, the heir apparent of Simone’s artistic legacy, something “What Happened” director Liz Garbus confirmed in an interview with The Washington Post.

It’s so easy to write off something like this with well-fed skepticism, right? Hill, who is notoriously mercurial and will leave a crowd hanging for ages if she deems it appropriate, is releasing new original music. Possibly. If we all behave ourselves.

But, but! The release of “Black Messiah” from D’Angelo at the end of 2014 forces us to consider this as a realistic possibility. Maybe it’s not just a mirage dancing along a 17-year creative desert. Depending on how you rank “Unplugged,” but Hill has largely left us parched. Her “What Happened” recordings were practically an oasis. What’s more, the unbridled greatness of D’Angelo’s album suggests that after making us wait for an eternity, the music that results might actually be fresh and full of the spiritual renewal for which Hill’s fans have been yearning.

“When she was first getting back into it, there were times when she wasn’t as positive,” Nicolo told The Fader. “But I think she’s in the best place I’ve ever seen her. She seems happy and very centered. When I see her, her face lights up.”