New Releases: Katy Perry, Jamie xx, Nelly Furtado, Ava Max and more

Welcome to New Music Friday, your one place to discover the biggest new song, album and DVD releases.

First, let's get stuck into albums. 

Haven't you heard? It's a woman's world and we're lucky to be living in it! Katy Perry's big comeback into the commercial pop arena hasn't been the smoothest of rides so far (we wrote more about that here) but we've finally arrived at the release of her sixth album, 143 (or 'I Love You'). 

Will it right now seems unlikely the LP will return Katy to the heights of her Teenage Dream popularity, expect a varied electronic-pop record that, in many, ways seems like a do-over of much-misunderstood 2017 album Witness, also including collaborations with Doechii (I'm His, He's Mine), Kim Petras (Gorgeous) and JID (Artificial). 

Woah, Nelly! Another one of the defining pop superstars of her generation returns today - Maneater chanteuse Nelly Furtado is going back to her fervent pop-banger roots with 7, which is a fitting title, seen as its her seventh LP overall, and there's been a gap of seven years in-between her releases. Welcome back, queen!

Jamie xx also drops his second solo album, In Waves, the follow-up to 2015's highly-acclaimed (and very influential, to this day!) In Colour. Recorded over four years, In Waves could well be the last Jamie xx solo album for a while - the other members of The xx, Romy and Oliver Sim, have also releases their own records within the last year, and the band reunites on-record for the first time since 2017 on album track Waited All Night. 

Meanwhile, over on singles, Sweet But Psycho hitmaker Ava Max continues to tease her in-the-works third album with fashionable synth-pop offering Spot A Fake, Charlotte Plank steps out of the shadows with the introspective Stargirl (read our exclusive First Listen on the track here) and Lizzy McAlpine dusts herself off for the colder months with autumn anthem Pushing It Down And Praying.