The Radar: This Week's Tunes You Need To Know – November 3

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

DSPs

45 years in the making, today sees The Beatles finally release their last-ever song, Now And Then. It marks a watershed moment in pop music history – we certainly didn’t have a Beatles comeback on our 2023 bingo cards – so it makes sense that Spotify would have the track lead this week’s New Music Friday playlist.

As a whole, the streaming giant’s Top Ten is stacked with local heroes – the #2, #3 and #4 spots respectively went to recent cover star Tkay Maidza (Won One), The Kid LAROI (BLEED) and Kita Alexander (Best You Ever Had), while Clinton Kane (PANIC ATTACK), Phi11a (Perfect Strangers) and Vance Joy (Rock It, a cover of Little Red’s 2010 hit he minted for the Mushroom 50 compilation) took out the respective #7, #8 and #9 spots. All but the latter two songs were also featured on Apple Music’s New Music Daily playlist, where Tkay’s banger – the focus track from her stellar second album, Sweet Justice, which arrives today via 4AD / Dew Process – tops the spread.

The only other song shared between the two flagship Top Tens is WILLOW’s alone, ranked at #8 on Apple’s list and #10 on Spotify’s. The latter spread is rounded out by the new songs from Aitch (Landslide, featuring Nafe Smallz) and Zoe Wees (Love Should Be Easy), while Apple’s features a slightly more diverse spread: Mind Awake, Body Asleep by Odd Mob and OMNOM, Christmas Dreaming by Laufey, Call It A Day by Zac & George, In My Head by Paul Woolford and LF SYSTEM (with an additional guest spot from Shayan), and Leather by Cody Johnson.

RADIO

Like the rest of us, the NOVA Network team were obsessed with Taylor Swift’s fresh take on 1989, adding all five of the album’s newly unearthed B-sides – Slut!, Say Don’t Go, Now That We Don’t Talk, Suburban Legends and Is It Over Now? – to its rotation across the board (ATB). In addition, Dom Dolla’s Saving Up was spotlit on Smallzy’s Surgery, and two songs were added to the station’s late-night rotation: Tell Her by Mia Wray and Krazy by Vassy.

Meanwhile, the Hit Network’s national drive rotation was bolstered by the lattermost of Swift’s 1989 B-sides (Is It Over Now?), which alongside Tell Her, was also added ATB at The FOX in Naarm/Melbourne. The same Swift tune was added ATB at Eora/Sydney’s KIIS 1065, with their nighttime rotation also gaining Atmosphere by Fisher and Kita Alexander, and Good One by Busted.

Over on triple j, this week’s feature album was the spellbinding second full-length by Angie McMahon (Light, Dark, Light Again), with an additional spotlight shone on Bad Bunny’s nadie sabe lo que va a pasar mañana. A further eight standalone tracks were added ATB, with five coming from Australian artists: Tell Her by Mia Wray, Pinnacle Bitch by Miss Kaninna, AEIOU by PNAU and Empire Of The Sun, Good Mood by The Rubens, and Close Quarters by Vacations.

Darcie Haven’s Fallen For also earned a spot add, while Fight Back Time by Sløtface and The Buoys passes on account of the latter group’s Sydney origins. As for the station’s international rep, the latest cuts from Charli XCX and Sam Smith (In The City), Neck Deep (It Won't Be Like This Forever) and piri & tommy (bluetooth) were all added ATB, with spot adds allocated to A1 x J1 (Scary, featuring Aitch), DoloRRes (AORA, featuring Jupita and Primary Thug), and the duo of Master Peace and Georgia (I Might Be Fake).

This week’s Radio Monitor Hot 50 chart comes with some major updates. For starters, Olivia Rodrigo’s vampire has been knocked down from #1 to #5, with Doja Cat’s Paint The Town Red taking that coveted peak (while it sat at #2 last week). Paul Russell’s Lil Boo Thang has also risen one spot, from #2 to #3, and Miley Cyrus’ Used To Be Young has earned a bump up from #6 to #3. Rounding out the Top Five is The Weeknd’s Madonna- and Playboi Carti-assisted Popular, which is currently sitting at #4.

All three of the week’s new entries come from Taylor Swift – Is It Over Now? at #22, plus the Taylor’s Version reduxes of Now That We Don't Talk and Style at #45 and #46, respectively – while Harry Styles’ As It Was marks the sole re-entry at #38.

COUNTRY

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

Apple Music’s flagship playlist, New Music Daily, featured the new songs from Zac & George (Call It A Day) and Cody Johnson (Leather) in their Top Ten – ranked respectively at #7 and #10 – marking a pretty impressive win for country music. The major streamer also featured the new songs from Chloe Styler (Heartbreak Heaven), Matt Cornell (Where I Wanna Be), Mia Dyson (Ragged Friend) and Katrina Burgoyne (Hubby In A Honky Tonk), while Spotify featured the latest cuts from Jason Aldean (Whose Rearview) and Tyler Hubbard (A Lot With A Little).

Looking at this week’s Countrytown Hot 50 chart, there’s been a few bits and pieces shuffled around in the Top Five: last week’s #1 – Watermelon Moonshine by Lainey Wilson – has slipped to #3, giving a bump up to Morgan Wallen’s Everything I Love (which now leads the pack at #1, up from last week’s #2 position) and Casey Barnes’ Never Give Up On A Good Time (up this week from #3 to #2). Also leaping up a spot is Live A Country Song by Amber Lawrence (rising from #5 to #4), and rounding out the Top Five as a whole is Love In A Country Town by Lane Pittman.

This week’s chart comes with three new entries: Feel Like Home by Karli June (featuring Ryan Langdon) at #31, A Little More Country by Max Jackson at #38 and A Special Place by Danielle Bradbery at #47. Additionally, there are four tracks re-entering the fold: Memory Lane by Old Dominion at #43, A Special Place by Danielle Bradbery at #47, A Boy That's Into Trucks by Sara Berki at #48, and Dancin' In The Country by Tyler Hubbard at #49.

Hear the big new tunes of the week now on The Music Hit List.
For the hottest rock, punk and metal jams, check out Kill Your Stereo’s Heavy Hitlist.
And for the latest in hip-hop and EDM, get your ears around Purple Sneakers’ Best New Music.