The Radar: This Week's Tunes You Need To Know – November 24

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

It’s been a huge week for Australian music, and both the two biggest streamers, Spotify and Apple Music, have embraced it with their flagship new music playlists (New Music Friday and New Music Daily, respectively). Spotify have Kiwi pop band Drax Project on the cover (showcasing their new single Luxury), but that’s ranked fourth in the list itself; the leading trio are all Aussies, with the new cuts from Day1 (GOLDEN TAN), Lime Cordiale (Pedestal) and COTERIE (Paradise) loudly and proudly spotlit.

Pedestal is the only song shared between the two streamers’ respective Top Tens – Apple’s editors ranked it #7 – with the tech giant’s playlist topped by G Flip and Tasman Keith; the former shook things up this week with a cover of the festive Phil Spector classic Christmas (Baby, Please Come Home), while the latter linked up with Will Grilla for the punchy TOO MANY REDS.

The rest of Apple’s Top Ten only features one international artist – Lauren Spencer Smith, with her new cut Hallelujah sitting in third place – while Spotify have a few more in the mix, all being collaborative efforts: Labios Mordidos by Kali Uchis and KAROL G, Stay High by Diplo, HUGEL and Julia Church, and Oral by Björk and ROSALÍA. Ed Sheeran also pops up with Throw Your Arms Around Me rounding out the Top Ten, but we’re counting that as a local track on a technicality: it’s a cover of Hunters & Collectors’ titular 1984 hit, and it was minted for the Mushroom 50 compilation... It’s honourably Aussie, fight me.

Fleshing out Spotify’s Top Ten are the latest anthem from Beddy Rays, Too Much (Is Too Much), and the striking Matt Corby and Budjerah joint The Way, plucked from the soundtrack of Baz Luhrmann’s Faraway Downs (a six-part recut of his 2008 epic Australia). Meanwhile, Apple fleshed their spread out with the new cuts from GLADES (Summer’s For Lovers), Sam Fischer (Hard To Love), KIAN (THE WAY), Tori Forsyth (Made Your Bed), UNO Stereo (IDCT, featuring Billymaree) and The Buoys (Settle Petal).

RADIO

It was a huge week for Amy Shark on commercial radio, with her Mushroom 50 cover of Britney Spears’ Can’t Get You Out Of My Head being added across-the-board (ATB) in Melbourne at The Fox, in Sydney at KIIS 1065, in Brisbane at B105 and in both Adelaide and the Limestone Coast at SAFM, as well as nationally on the NOVA Network’s late-night rotation. The lattermost catalogue was also bolstered by Mashd N Kutcher’s It’s Alright.

Elsewhere at NOVA, their sole ATB addition Prada by Cassö, RAYE and D-Block Europe. The weekend rotation gained two songs: Asking by Sonny Fodera and MK (featuring Clementine Douglas), and Vance Joy’s cover of Little Red’s Rock It – another Mushroom 50 tribute. Smallzy’s Surgery, too, gained Lovin On Me by Jack Harlow and Get Me Started by Troye Sivan (which also made it ATB at The Fox, and on the national nighttime rotation at the Hit Network).

Two more songs were added ATB at The Fox – Body Moving by Eliza Rose and Calvin Harris, and the Bailey Zimmerman-assisted Strong Enough by the Jonas Brothers – the latter of which also made it ATB at B105 and SAFM. KIIS’ sole other ATB addition was Water by TYLA, but Guy Sebastian’s latest cut Angels Brought Me Here, Again did make it to the nighttime rotation. And rounding out this week’s national nightly spread at the Hit Network, we’ve got the new tunes from Dua Lipa (Houdini), Kenya Grace (Strangers), Dom Dolla (Saving Up) and Royston Noell (Dreaming).

This week’s triple j feature album is The Grogans’ fourth LP, Find Me A Cloud. There were stacks more local tracks added to the national youth broadcaster, too, with five being ATB adds (Be Like You by Dune Rats, Badness Issa Habit by Gold Fang, Like A Girl Does by Peach PRC, No Bad Days by The Terrys and We Don’t Talk About It by Thelma Plum) and four being spot adds (YEAH! by Between You & Me, Home And In Love by Mitch Santiago, The Last Time by Nat Dunn, and Hey x by Sesame Girl).

One further spot add came courtesy of WILLOW (alone), and there were four songs added ATB from international artists: Your Blood by AURORA, Watch Me by Biig Piiig, Lovin On Me by Jack Harlow, and If U Need It by Sammy Virji.

Paul Russell kept his #1 spot on this week’s Radio Monitor Hot 50 (with the viral smash Lil Boo Thang), but last week’s #2, Used To Be Young by Miley Cyrus, took a massive whack and slid back down to #5. Thanks to that drop, Doja Cat and Dua Lipa were both bumped up a spot – the former with Paint The Town Red at #2 and the latter with Houdini at #3 – while Taylor Swift’s Lover hit Cruel Summer rose up from #6 to #4.

There are three new additions in this week’s chart: Strangers by Kenya Grace at #31, A Sky Full Of Stars by Coldplay at #43 (thanks in no short part to the announcement of their upcoming national tour) and Saving Up by Dom Dolla at #47. The Pretender by Foo Fighters also returned ahead of their stadium tour next month – coming in at #46 – while the sole other re-entry was Sunroof by Nicky Youre and Dazy at #42.

COUNTRY

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

Apple Music was the only DSP to showcase a country song in the Top Ten of their flagship new music playlist (New Music Daily), spotlighting Made Your Bed by Tori Forsyth at #8. Also featured on the roster are the new songs by Bud Rokesky (Getting Old), Josh Setterfield (Stay), Raechel Whitchurch (Nothing Makes You Happy), Casey Barnes (Miracles) and Amy Sheppard (Backfire). Spotify also featured the latter two (as well as Forsyth’s track) in their equivalent playlist, New Music Friday, as well as Christmas In The Backyard by Morgan Evans and Runnin’ Outta Love by Tim McGraw.

This week’s Countrytown Hot 50 chart sees Dustin Lynch retain his #1 position with Stars Like Confetti. Tyler Hubbard swung into the #2 spot as a wild underdog, his single Back Then Right Now booming up from last week’s #7. It knocks the next two songs down a spot from where they sat last week – Sara Berki’s Favour at #3 and Morgan Wallen’s Everything I Love at #4 – and the Top Five is rounded out by another surprising soarer: Overthinking by Amy Sheppard, which leapt up from last week’s #18.

There are six new tracks in the chart this week: Call It A Day by Zac & George at #34, I Can Feel It by Kane Brown at #35, 23 by Chayce Beckham at #39, Coast by Bryce Sainty at #43, Where The Wild Things Are by Luke Combs at #46, and Enjoy The Ride by Fanny Lumsden at #50. As for re-entries, this week’s update gives us three: Sweet For You by Ashleigh Dallas at #45, Same Damn Walls by Jimbo Stokes at #47, and Boys Like Me by Casey Barnes at #49.

Hear the big new tunes of the week now on The Music Hit List.
And for the latest in hip-hop and EDM, get your ears around Purple Sneakers’ Best New Music.