By Mark Savage BBC music reporter

Image copyright Virgin

"I got called 'the sorceress of horny' the other day," says Jessie Ware, brimming with glee.

"They said I would have been burned at the stake. It's the best quote I've ever had in my life."

The singer, who shot to fame in 2012 with her Mercury-nominated debut album, is quoting a not-entirely-inaccurate review of her latest single, Ooh La La.

An irresistible slice of 80s disco-funk, its every line is a come-on, propelled by an impatient hopscotch bass line.

"It's full of innuendo," she laughs. "We were trying to find a way that we could get away with murder without it sounding completely filthy."

It is certainly a departure from Ware's last album, Glasshouse, where she wrote about meeting and falling in love with her partner, Sam Burrows, a personal trainer, and her struggles as a new mother.

Released in 2017, the record earned her a Brit nomination for best female, but sales were underwhelming and an appearance at the Coachella music festival went so badly that her mum advised her to quit music altogether.

By that point, the pair had started a hugely successful podcast, Table Manners, in which they cook a meal for a celebrity guest, while giving them a grilling of their own.

Listening to an episode feels like eavesdropping at a family dinner party: Jessie and Lennie bicker and tease and resurrect embarrassing memories, but their affection for each other shines through.

"We're quite a loud, emotional family," Ware concedes. "There's no secrets, there's not that much politeness, we're quite dysfunctional but it works."

Fans have devoured the show's hilarious, zero-filter conversations with an appetite to match guest star Ed Sheeran, who ate "four helpings of sausages" during his appearance.

Now in its 10th series, the podcast has been downloaded more than 80 million times ("the only number one I've ever got in my life," jokes Ware) with highlights including Sam Smith's worryingly accurate Gollum impersonation, and Aisling Bea explaining to Lennie the difference between "doggy-style" and "dogging".

'Longing for pleasure'

Ware, in particular, has a knack for drawing candid confessions from her guests.

"People always confide in me very quickly," she says. "I always seem to be that person that somebody's telling their life story to in the toilet at a party.

"And I'm always quite up for it: I just kind of put my claws into other people and suck the life out of them."

The podcast has now spawned a cookbook and a live show - and the success gave Ware room to re-evaluate her musical career.

She ditched the autobiographical, confessional lyrics of Glasshouse and went back to the cutting-edge club sounds of her debut... while embracing her inner horny sorceress.

"This album was pure escapism: Let's fantasise, let's do everything faster and sexier and naughtier."

Pulse-quickening title track What's Your Pleasure is a breathless update of Donna Summer's Love To Love You Baby; while Save A Kiss sizzles with sensuality. "You're always striking the match," she sighs, "And I think I'm gonna burn now."

"It's fun playing the temptress, because that's so not me," Ware laughs. "But I want my nightlife to to be like What's Your Pleasure.

"I'm longing for that: A bit of a night out and touching and speaking intimately to each other. Maybe meeting a stranger and not having to deal with the people you're living with for a night.

"This is what's so funny. I've written this record that's total fantasy, because my nightlife is dealing with two kids between 2am and 5am, and them having a frickin' party but my husband and I just being like, 'Jesus Christ, go to sleep'."