Mary J. Blige is switching things up with her upcoming LP, thanks to a month-long journey to London. The singer cites the city's liberating culture as her main inspiration for the 10-track project.

Titled Mary J. Blige: The London Sessions, her 13th studio album follows the release of June's Think Like a Man Too soundtrack, which the singer recorded in its entirety.

During an interview with British newspaper The Guardian, the Queen of Hip Hop Soul dished on the creative process for the highly anticipated album. "Our idea was to become part of London," she said. "To really embrace the culture — to really live in it. Not that I haven't been here before, but I've never had the chance to really soak it in the way I have this time."

Working closely with London's biggest and brightest acts in the past from Disclosure to Sam Smith, Blige was eager to record new music with that distinctive London touch.

"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 ... 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."

Mary J. Blige: The London Sessions will be released in November.

Meanwhile, click here to check out some of the best U.S.-U.K. collabs in music.

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 (Photo: C Flanigan/Getty Images)