Released Tuesday (Dec. 2), the album is also notable for how quickly it came together, with Blige and her collaborators cutting it in a mere 20 days (10 writing, 10 recording). "Once I started writing with these artists and producers, we just clicked," Blige tells Radio.com.

Frequent collaborator Rodney Jerkins was on board for the ride, too, producing several tracks. Still, Blige's gamble with an album that mixes soul tracks, deep house and guitar-based pop songs is one of the riskiest of her career. "I considered it to be a leap of faith," Blige explains, "because this is something different than I would normally give [my fans]."

Blige speaks to Radio.com about what motivated her to record The London Sessions, her thoughts on her collaborators and how she knew Sam Smith was going to be a star from the jump.

Radio.com: Do you consider The London Sessions to be a stretch outside of your musical comfort zone?

Mary J. Blige: I considered it to be a leap of faith, The London Sessions, concerning my fans because this is something different than I would normally give them. That's the only thing. As far as my comfort zone, I was very comfortable singing every last one of these songs and coming up with the ideas. The only thing that was a little nerve-wracking was wondering if and hoping that my fans would like it.

There are a lot of different sounds on the album: orchestral or guitar-based arrangements next to Disclosure productions next to Rodney Jerkins productions. Did you worry about how to sequence them to fit together?

When I was recording the album, I wasn't really worried about how to fit the songs on it. I was just recording them as I felt them. My husband [Kendu Isaacs], who is a producer and my manager--he does so many things, we do it together. We sew it together together, but he does the bulk of tying the album together, making it a cohesive piece of work.

Radio.com: You worked with a lot of new songwriters, producers and people who you haven't collaborated with before on this one. Was there a learning curve?

Mary J. Blige: The reason we recorded the album so quickly together was that once I started writing with these artists and producers, we just clicked. Working with Sam Smith, Emile Sande, everybody--it was so amazing because everyone had so much in common. It made the album really fast to finish and as beautiful as it is.

Radio.com: Did you find you had a lot in common musically with the guys in Disclosure?

Mary J. Blige: Yeah, my whole reason for gravitating towards them was the fact that they had so much knowledge of the music that my generation grew up on. The deep house--I was too young to go clubbing, but I used to hear it on the radio, and they captured it 100%.

Their hip-hop history and their musical history is just like [shakes her head], "You guys are too young. What are you, like aliens or something?" [laughs]. It's just amazing.

Radio.com: What made you want to push yourself in this direction?

Mary J. Blige: I've been doing what I've been doing consistently as an artist for 20-something years. I reached the point where I felt like I needed to grow and do something different, something outside of the genre that I was in and touching people. I have more fans than just the fans with whom I've grown up. As an artist I wanted to grow and give them that.