The Radar: This Week's Tunes You Need To Know – July 28

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

Spotify is on a hip-hop kick this week, topping their Australian and New Zealand-focussed New Music Friday playlist with the latest from Post Malone, Enough Is Enough. Tkay Maidza also just scapes by in the Top Five with her fresh new single Ring-a-Ling, while Hooligan Hefs reserved the spot right under her for And We. Country fans fare well too with Date Night – the massive new collab between Kita Alexander and Morgan Evans – scoring the #2 spot in this week’s list. The #4 placing for Teen Jesus And The Jean Teasers’ new track (I Used To Be Fun) is also huge for the Australian rock scene – and it’s always great to see non-binary artists in the spotlight. There are even two in this week’s Top Five, with Sam Smith guesting on Desire by Calvin Harris at #3.

The whole list is teeming with local favourites – much the same as it is over on Apple Music and their New Music Daily playlist. MAY-A slides into that Top Five with her summery new bop something Familiar, a vibe that’s mellowed out soon thereafter by Dope Lemon’s Miami Baby. Scrolling down just a bit more, we see a good handful of the fresh releases from merci, mercy (Lonely & Horny), Beddy Rays (Bored), Middle Kids (Highlands) and even Polaris (Nightmare). Amy Shark also places with the new acoustic redux of Can I Shower At Yours, but only on Apple’s playlist...

It’s also a pretty good time to have famous friends, with both Spotify and Apple highlighting a solid amount of collaborations. Holly Humberstone and D4VD make the cut on both lists with Superbloodmoon, as does Anne-Marie and Khalid with YOU & I. Other standouts include the Odd Mob and Basura Boyz joint Blisters On My Feet, Denzel Curry’s new Juicy J-assisted single BLOOD ON MY NIKEZ, and the barn-stomping country team-up from James Johnston and Zac & George, Some Things Never Change.

RADIO

After last week’s wave-making national premiere, Ricki-Lee’s new single Point Of No Return was added across-the-board (ATB) on the NOVA Network. Also added ATB at NOVA was the Ian Asher remix of Makeba by Jain, Runaway by Pink and The Kid LAROI’s Barbie soundtrack inclusion, Forever & Again. Meanwhile, Troye Sivan is still feeling the Rush with his new single added to the daytime rotation, and Smallzy’s Surgery has shown some love to FIFTY FIFTY’s Barbie Dreams (featuring Kaliii).

Rush also made it to the nighttime rotation at KIIS, while Ed Sheeran’s Life Goes On redux with Luke Combs was added ATB. Meanjin/Brisbane’s B105 have put Rush up ATB though, adding it to the full-day fold alongside Pink’s Runaway. The latter song also made it to Melbourne’s FOX additions, with their trio of ATB adds rounded out by Jungkook’s Latto-assisted Seven and Taylor Swift’s newly re-recorded I Can See You.

As is often the case, triple j have come through with the most new additions. IRL by Mahalia is their featured pick for this week, while other international adds come from Beabadoobee (with The Way Things Go), Claire Rosinkranz (Screw Time), Disclosure (Looking For Love) and Lil Uzi Vert (Endless Fashion, featuring Nicki Minaj). On the local side, the national youth broadcaster have added Limelight by Blusher, Let Her Be by Maina Doe, Adored by Royal Otis, W4NNA DO by Thomas Headon, and, of course, Rush. Spot adds have also been allocated to Budjerah’s Video Game, Kito’s Lolo Zouai-assisted Sticky, Midwxst’s Pretty Girls, Oh Boy’s LOV333 and Ūla’s God Complex.

As for this week’s Radio Monitor Hot 50, we’re looking at another week in the top spot for Luke Combs’ Fast Car. Post Malone’s Chemical has jumped up from #5 to #2, though, taking over from Ed Sheeran’s Eyes Closed (which sits at #3 this week). The ricochet effect also knocked Taylor Swift’s two Top Five entries down a spot each – Karma now sits at #4, with Cruel Summer at #5 – while the rest of the Top Ten looks relatively unchanged from last week (bar some minor reshuffling of placements, and a new peak of #10 for Escapism by RAYE and 070 Shake).

Towards the bottom of the chart, we see a couple massive boosts for Jain and Jungkook – the former has soared from #369 to #49 with Makeba, while the latter has absolutely skyrocketed with Seven, going all the way from #620 to #50.

COUNTRY

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

Shock and awe: Jelly Roll’s Need A Favour still reigns at the top of the Countrytown Hot 50 airplay chart. The next three tracks all remain unchanged – Luke Combs’ Fast Car at #2, Casey Barnes’ Boys Like Me at #3 and The Wolfe Bros’ Love Me Like That (featuring The Shires) at #4 – but there’s been a two place jump up for Memory Lane by Old Dominion (from #7 to #5), allowing Hey Little Mama by Morgan Wallen to slip back into that #7 spot (it was #8 last week). Sara Berki sees even bigger leap with her single A Boy That’s Into Trucks, jumping up from last week’s #16 spot into a new peak at #9.

The most notable new entry in this week’s chart is Chris Stapleton’s White Horse at #41. We’re a little surprised it didn’t chart higher, given it’s the lead single from Stapleton’s upcoming fifth album (Higher, out November 10) and follows collaborations with Taylor Swift, Metallica and Adele. Other new entries include Untangled by Raechel Whitchurch one place higher (#40) and We Don't Fight Anymore by Carly Pearce (featuring none other than Stapleton) at #46.

Nevertheless, it’s a good sign for the country genre that Date Night (that new joint from Kita Alexander and Morgan Evans) placed second in Spotify’s New Music Friday playlist, and made it high up on Apple’s New Music Daily equivalent. Both also spotlit the new tune from James Johnston and Zac & George (Some Things Never Change), while Apple has an exclusive new single by Jelly Roll (Dragging These Roots) on theirs. Other new tunes with DSP approval include Been Better by Seaforth, Like Me Too by Abby Christo, Bigger Mistakes by Mitchell Tenpenny and That Thing You Like by Hannah Dasher.

ICYMI, this week’s Countrytown premieres included new fiery jams from Jeremy Turner (She Keeps Comin’ Around) and Good Will Remedy (Bleed).