The Radar: This Week's Tunes You Need To Know – August 4

Every Friday in The Radar, The Music breaks down the week’s top performers and the breaking new music you need to be across. 

Hear the big new tunes of the week now on The Music Hit List.

DSPs

She may have lost more than a quarter million Instagram followers after she argued with fans, but Doja Cat is still one of the biggest names in modern pop – her bold new single, Paint The Town Red, tops this week’s New Music Friday playlist on Spotify, and comes in second on Apple Music’s New Music Daily spread. Both playlists have the track followed (albeit with the orders flipped) by Tones And I’s new Matildas theme The Greatest, and the latest teaming-up from Bebe Rexha and David Guetta, One In A Million. As for the track topping Apple’s flagship new music playlist, Stephen Sanchez has today’s honour with Be More.

Collaborations still reign supreme across both playlists – in addition to the aforementioned Bebe Guetta joint, highlights include Ready by Holy Holy and Sumner, Fortress by Dan Sultan and Julia Stone, Nightmare On Peachtree Street by Yung Gravy and bbno$, Likkle Drop by Benson and Kwame, Ready To Go by ShockOne and Bright Sparks, and Good Good by Usher, 21 Savage and Summer Walker. The latter quartet are all heavyweights in the Purple Sneakers sphere – as is EDM supergroup Swedish House Mafia, whose new single Ray Of Solar is being shown a lot of love by all the major streamers.

In terms of other Australian artists featured, there’s a good balance of established heavyweights and more emerging names. New songs by staple acts like Delta Goodrem (Back To Your Heart), The Cat Empire (Owl), The Paper Kites (I Don’t Want To Go That Way) and Will Sparks (Tension) are all given their flowers, sharing the spotlight with rising stars like Didirri (I Wanted It Easier Than This), Gretta Ray (Don’t Date The Teenager), South Summit (Sidelines) and Dulcie (Off By Heart).

There’s a good whack of new rock in there too, like Luca Brasi’s triumphant track Sonny and Dream On Dreamer’s pseudo-comeback single Surrender, plus There Won’t Be Another You by Tiny Little Houses and BiIls by Carla Geneve. Apple also gives an extra shoutout to up-and-coming acts like Satin Cali (Nirvana And Cheap Groceries) and Sophisticated Dingo (VCR). On the other end of the spectrum, new dance tunes come courtesy of national treasures like WIIGZ (French Tips), Lupa J (Suspended Disbelief) and SAFIA (Float).

RADIO

There was only one new across-the-board (ATB) addition to the NOVA Network for this week, being Sam Smith’s recent teaming-up with Calvin Harris (Desire). The same track was added to the nightly rotation over at KIIS, while their sole ATB pick was Rush by Troye Sivan. Desire made it ATB at Melbourne FOX, though, joining the ranks alongside the Ian Asher remix of Makeba by Jain, as well as the new Post Malone single Enough Is Enough (plucked from his career-defining AUSTIN album).

triple j agrees with us that AUSTIN rules, making it this week’s feature album. Meanwhile, Australian songs make up all but two of the songs added ATB by the national youth broadcaster (those outliers being Blame Brett by The Beaches and the Juicy J-assisted BLOOD ON MY NIKEZ by Denzel Curry).

Beddy Rays’ new song Bored made the cut, as did Miami Baby by Dope Lemon, Two Years by Forest Claudette, Sticky by Kito (featuring Lolo Zouaï), Bitter Lovers by Tash Sultana (featuring BJ The Chicago Kid), I Used To Be Cool by Teen Jesus And The Jean Teasers, and both Ring-a-Ling and Silent Assassin by Tkay Maidza. It’s worth noting that three of those artists (Claudette, Sultana and Anna Ryan of Teen Jesus) are non-binary, proving triple j’s dedication to diversifying their rotation and giving the non-cis community some meaningful representation.

As for this week’s Radio Monitor Hot 50, Luke Combs’ Fast Car is still holding steady in the top spot, while Post Malone’s Chemical remains at #2. Dua Lipa’s Dance The Night has leapt up from #3 to #6, though, bumping Ed Sheeran’s Eyes Closed down a place, and knocking Taylor Swift’s Karma out of the Top Five altogether (it’s now at #6). Her song Cruel Summer stuck around, taking that #5 spot. Elsewhere in the Top Ten, Harry Styles’ Satellite has re-entered at #8 (up seven places from its #15 charting last week) and Lewis Capaldi’s Wish You The Best just scraped through at #10.

We’ve got five new entries this week: Desire at #15, Point Of No Return by Ricki-Lee at #22, Runaway by Pink at #25, Enough Is Enough at #32, and Forever & Again by The Kid LAROI at #36. Other points worth noting are a solid bump up for Jung Kook – his Latto-assisted single Seven rose from #50 right up to #23 – and an imminent milestone for The Kid LAROI, who’s just one week away from having STAY (the hit single he minted with Justin Bieber) make it to a flat 100 weeks on the chart.

COUNTRY

Hear the big new country tunes of the week on the Countrytown Hot Country Hits Playlist.

There are four new entries in this week’s Countrytown Hot 50 chart: Tori Drake’s Feelin’ It at #37, Ed Sheeran’s Life Goes On at #40, Southbound xo’s Boat at #45, and Ella & Sienna’s It’s Not Me It’s You at #46. There have also been a couple massive surges in streaming numbers – most notably, Fanny Lumsden’s When I Die made it back into the Hot 50 with its leap up from #59 to #29 (an accomplishment that coincides with the release of her new album, Hey Dawn, today). And Chris Stapleton’s White Horse fared a little better this week, up from #41 to #28 for its second mention on the chart.