Glasgow songstress Helen Marnie is setting a high bar with what she is hoping from her new album.

“World domination is still there,” she laughs.

“The whole thing about making music is that you hope people will listen to it. I feel I’ve made a great album and I want as many people to listen to it as possible. I don’t want to be Beyonce or anything like that, but if I can get the music out there to as many people as possible then I’d be happy. Why else would you make music?”

It might not conquer the world, but the Ladytron singer’s second solo album, Strange Words and Weird Wars, is a cracker of a record. It fizzes with electro-pop to storm the dancefloor to, and is a bolder step forward than Helen’s first solo release, Crystal World.

That came out in 2013, just as Ladytron were beginning their ongoing hiatus, after five albums of futuristic pop.

“Crystal World was quite soft, and I think it felt introspective, very personal and emotional,” says the singer.

“I’d kind of had it with that. I think the album was great but I had to do something different. So it was a case of working with [producer] Jonny Scott on beats. I wanted something harder, that you could feel more, something more uptempo and danceable.”

The album itself is a more focused release, and Helen admits she had a clearer idea of what she wanted from the album this time.

“When I was thinking about doing Crystal World, it was quite unplanned,” she says.

“I’d joked about it the year previously, and then realised I had time to do it. Danny (Hunt) from Ladytron was like ‘I’ll produce it’ and suddenly it was actually happening. This one, I knew what I wanted to do with it.

“I think there was more pressure on me with the first one, which is odd because you usually hear more about the difficult second album. But because I was in Ladytron and the fans there are die hard and loyal, I felt this pressure of it being the first solo outing and I guess that played a part in the music I created. This time I was more free.”

Luckily, many Ladytron fans have been supportive of her new work.

“You can’t please everyone so it comes down to what I want to do,” she adds.

“I can’t make records purely to please people, or else I’d just make Ladytron records over and over again. I’m happy to try different things, and whatever makes me happy is the most important thing.”

Helen’s first solo release came just after she had moved back to Glasgow for the first time since her teens. She had moved to Liverpool to study, and from there ended up in London before returning home. She’s now quite settled in the city, staying in Pollokshields.

“I’m glad I came back – you get sucked into London, and you don’t even know why you’re there,” she explains.

“I was in London for a long time but I always knew I didn’t want to end up in London. I’d planned to be there for a couple of years, and then suddenly realised I’d been there 11 years, and it was just too much.

“I really like Pollokshields as an area, because there’s all these places opening up, bars and cafes and that. It’s like a wee hub. I don’t really think Glasgow has changed that much over the years to me - even somewhere like the Barras, it’s now got things like the BAAD design centre, but that whole area still hasn’t really changed in forever. I still love it there, that’s where we shot the video for Lost Maps and that was really cool.”

However change is a recurring theme on the record, with lyrics dealing with love affairs, mortality and lost friendship.

“I think the two big themes on there are love and mortality,” she says.

“There’s love affairs and things that don’t work out, and obviously mortality comes into the record on a few occasions. I guess that relates to love as well. It’s not just those two themes, there’s a bit of harking back to lost friendships, when you don’t really know why they were broken.

“You become aware of your own mortality and that of those around you, and that plays a part in what you write about, even if it’s morbid.”

Strange Words and Weird Wars is out now.

JONATHAN GEDDES