Mary J. Blige spent her summer in London making an album unlike anything she's ever created.
The London Sessions LP will feature several prominent British songwriters — including Disclosure and Sam Smith — and Blige recently sat down with The Guardian to discuss the project.
"The sound in London at the moment is house music," she said. "That is what the majority of people are producing their songs like. But the ones that get truly successful are the ones using proper songwriting. Rudimental for example - they write proper songs and then produce them like dance music. And that is exactly what we're trying to do, along with a few other people. But that applies to any genre, not just dance music. You could take the songs off Sam Smith's album, produce them in a completely different way and they would still be a huge success - you could produce them like acid jazz and I still feel like they'd get somewhere."
Blige said recording in London reminds her of days past in her homeland.
"The music is free over here the way it used to be in the States," she said. "Artists are just free to do what they love. Listening to the radio you can hear the freedom. The music is living and breathing - you can hear that from Adele's last album. It was massive - a big deal. But she did what she loved."
Thirteen songs were recorded for the LP, which will eventually be cut to 10 and released this fall.
Executive producer Rodney "Darkchild" Jerkins hears a new sound in the record.
"You have so much different music here. Variety births the next generation. In California the music kind of all feels the same. That 90s house vibe you have right now - it feels fresh. Dancin', celebratin' - feelin' good about life. We're making a Mary Blige record, but she can introduce new styles to the world."
Smith, the "Stay With Me" hitmaker, put The London Sessions LP in elite modern company.
"With my record - and when you think about Adele, and Amy Winehouse and Ed Sheeran - we're not worried about the way we're looking, the way we're coming across in our music," he said. "We're just saying what's in our minds and in our hearts. Some people think that when you are singing about heartbreak, or how lonely you are, or how sad, that you are admitting to weakness. But I don't see that as weakness. I see that as strength - to be able to face your issues and your sadness head-on. That's what I've tried to do in my music, and I think that's what this Mary album is about - a fearless vulnerability."
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