What's Your Pleasure?

After the promotional cycle for her previous album Glasshouse, Ware felt pressured to quit music due to poor album sales and her exhaustion with touring. However, Ware's podcast Table Manners gained a larger following of 13 million listeners and soon became Ware's main priority. Speaking to The Independent, Ware described the podcast's success as a "turning point" that changed her outlook of herself: "I suddenly felt more comfortable in my skin."[7] With the podcast, Ware discusses more personal topics that she felt forced to publicise with her music.

What's Your Pleasure? was initially scheduled to be released on 5 June 2020,[3] however the date was moved to 19 June, due to the COVID-19 pandemic.[8][9] Ware then announced that she would be pushing the release date back another week so as not to conflict with Juneteenth.[10] The album was eventually released on 26 June.

On 8 January 2021, Ware confirmed on Twitter that a deluxe edition of the album was forthcoming.[11]

What's Your Pleasure is a disco[12][13] post-disco,[12][14][15] funk,[16][17] and pop[15][18] album that features elements of nu-disco,[13] Italo disco,[19] Euro disco,[20] hi-NRG,[21] rave,[21] house-pop,[22] deep house,[14] acid house,[14] EDM,[23]electronica,[14] electropop,[19] electro,[18] new wave,[24] trip hop,[21] R&B,[13][14] gospel,[14] chamber folk,[20] and soul,[13] as well as music from the 70s, 80s, and 90s.[13]

Professional ratings

Aggregate scores
Source	Rating
AnyDecentMusic?	8.3/10[25]
Metacritic	84/100[26]
Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[20]
The Daily Telegraph	[27]
The Guardian	[15]
The Independent	[17]
The Irish Times	[28]
NME	[16]
The Observer	[29]
Pitchfork	8.3/10[19]
Rolling Stone	[12]
The Times	[30]

What's Your Pleasure? received widespread critical acclaim. At Metacritic, which assigns a weighted average rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream publications, the album received an average score of 84, based on 17 reviews, indicating "universal acclaim".[26] Aggregator AnyDecentMusic? gave What's Your Pleasure? 8.3 out of 10, based on their assessment of the critical consensus.[25]

Tara Joshi of The Guardian praised the upbeat nature of What's Your Pleasure? and compared it to other "grown-up disco" albums like Lady Gaga's Chromatica and Robyn's Honey.[15] NME editor Hannah Mylrea claimed the album was a return to Ware's club roots, which she had strayed away from since her debut Devotion and called it "an intoxicating cocktail of seductive beats, exhilarating choruses and sleek production."[16] Owen Myers of Pitchfork complimented the album's musical references to disco divas of the past like Donna Summer, Diana Ross, and Anita Ward and awarded it the website's Best New Music distinction. Myers remarked positively on Ware's commitment to making uplifting music while allowing "a little of her signature psychodrama to creep into the nocturnal escapades she describes, and the flecks of ennui make the highs even higher."[19] Andy Kellman of Allmusic singled out "Mirage (Don't Stop)" as a highlight, praising the Bananarama-influenced production, as well as praising the production of the album as a whole.[15] Kellman also praised the "chamber folk soul" of the album's closer "Remember Where You Are", calling it a "stirring finale".

In July 2020, What's Your Pleasure? was included on Slant's list of the best albums of 2020 so far.[31]

According to the Official Charts Company, What's Your Pleasure? was the most downloaded album over the weekend upon its initial release on 26 June 2020.[52] The album eventually debuted at number three on both the UK Albums Chart and Scottish Albums Chart, giving Ware her fourth consecutive top-ten entry on the former and her first top-three entry on both. By this, the album became Ware's highest peak position on both charts, surpassing the No. 5 peak and No. 26 peak achieved by her debut project Devotion (2012).[53] The album is also Ware's first top-forty entry on the Belgian Albums (Ultratop Flanders) chart since Tough Love (2014), debuting at number thirty-six.