LOS ANGELES: British soul singer sensation Sam Smith desperately wants to take a year off. But he just can’t stop working on his new album.

The 23-year-old Londoner, who pocketed four Grammy Awards for his debut album “In the Lonely Hour,” has had a whirlwind year filled with performances and promotional tours the world over.

But the astounding breakout success came at a cost and in May Smith had to have surgery on his vocal cords.

So now Smith wants to take a bit of a breather. Except that shutting off is proving harder than expected.

“I have a year off of being on the scene and releasing,” he told journalists in Beverly Hills.

But “I’m forever working in my head.”

“I’m always going to write music — I can’t sit still when it comes to that thing,” added Smith, sporting stubble and an elegant midnight blue suit.

He joked that, come February, he would be tweeting his fans that he’s ready to release something new.

“I’ll refrain because first people will get sick of me and my family needs me to be home,” he added.

He said he’s already written four songs for his second album, describing them as “quite sad.”

“They’re about different things, my relationship with my family, for example,” he said.

His comments came just days after the singer, who speaks openly about being gay, told talk show host Ellen DeGeneres that he wanted to take a year off “to kiss some more boys so I can write some songs.”

Reflecting on his surgery, Smith joked: “I learned that I talked a lot because I had to be quiet for three weeks.”

And now Smith is battling a bad cold, forcing him to cancel several performances.

“I woke up yesterday and I just couldn’t sing,” he said, adding that after his operation he’s become very “scared about damaging things.”