The Radar: This Week's Tunes You Need To Know – August 11

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 and Apple Music are both all over the new Olivia Rodrigo jam, bad idea right? – the second preview of her impending Sour sequel GUTS, and the leading track on Spotify’s New Music Friday playlist; it’s #2 on Apple Music’s New Music Daily, where Yeat’s bigger thën us – which isn’t on Spotify’s radar at all – tops the spread. G Flip, The Music’s current cover star, also gets their flowers from both the biggest streamers with their DRUMMER cut Good Enough sitting at #3 on both playlists.

Other big Aussie hits ranked highly in Spotify’s list include Jessica Mauboy’s Jason Derulo-assisted Give You Love, Fisher’s Atmosphere joint with Kita Alexander, JessB’s Gold Fang-assisted Ring Ring, JACOTÉNE’s quirkily titled you already know [demo_2021].wav and The Rions’ Take What You Want. The lattermost outfit also dropped their new EP Minivan today; indie-rock fans should keep an eye on The Rions, they’re poised to be one of the biggest bands in the country soon enough.

Over on Apple Music, we see top-billed shoutouts to Tia Gostelow (I’m Getting Bored Of This), Melanie Dyer (Dust), YNG Martyr (Where We Started) and Teenage Joans (Candy Apple). In terms of genre diversity, this spread certainly takes the trophy! Both playlists also show some big love to the new Fred again.. and Obongjayar joint i adore you, as well as Trippie Redd’s Roddy Rich-assisted Closed Doors; Trippie’s new album, A Love Letter To You 5, arrived today as well.

Apple Music’s Top Ten is rounded out by James Bay’s Goodbye Never Felt So Bad, while Spotify’s last open spot was snatched up by Tove Lo’s Elevator Eyes. Both are solid playlists overall, but Apple gets some brownie points for being a tad more diverse and shouting out some more up-and-coming locals. One of those is Eliott, whose new song Only 25 made the cut – they’re another artist with an album out today, their debut effort Just Calling To Tell You I’m OK. It’s a stellar record (and if you’re keen to read more about it, we interviewed Eliott earlier this week).

Make sure to check out the hottest rock, punk and metal jams in Kill Your Stereo’s Heavy Hitlist.
And for the latest in hip-hop, EDM and indie, get your ears around Purple Sneakers’ Best New Music.

RADIO

Billie Eilish has an answer to her existential question What Was I Made For? – commercial radio. The heartrending ballad, which Eilish minted for the box office-dominating Barbie movie, is the only track added across the board (ATB) at the NOVA Network for this week. Smallzy can’t get Barbie off his mind, with the Nicki Minaj and Ice Spice joint Barbie World (also featuring Aqua) making it to this week’s Smallzy’s Surgery rotation. Busted and the Jonas Brothers’ Year 3000 2.0 also made the cut for his playlist.

Brisbane’s B105 listeners had three new tunes to jam out to this week, with the station’s ATB adds including Jung Kook’s Latto-assisted Seven, Post Malone’s Enough Is Enough and that massive duet between Jessica Mauboy and Jason Derulo, Give You Love. Over in Melbourne, FOX added just one new song, being David Guetta’s One In A Million with Bebe Rexha. As for the daily drive slot, all stations on the HIT Network had Pink’s Runaway thrown into the mix.

Over on triple j, this week’s feature album is Lil Tjay’s 222. Doja Cat and Jorja Smith are the two international artists with ATB adds (respectively with Paint The Town Red and GO GO GO), while locals spotlit include DJ Seinfeld and Confidence Man (Now U Do), Holy Holy (Ready, featuring Sumner), Luca Brasi (The World Don’t Owe You Anything), Middle Kids (Highlands), Molly Millington (Foreign Accent), Shag Rock (Zero Gs) and South Summit (Sidelines). Little Green’s Alien and Merci, Mercy’s Lonely & Horny also got spot adds, as did Haircut by BETWEEN FRIENDS, the 6LACK-assisted Mustard by Jordan Ward, and Ray Of Solar by Swedish House Mafia.

Taking a peek at this week’s Radio Monitor Hot 50, Luke Combs’ Fast Car has finally – finally – been dethroned from the #1 spot. It’s now sitting at #3, with Post Malone’s Chemical and Dua Lipa’s Dance The Night taking those first two places. Taylor Swift is still holding steady with Cruel Summer at #4, though, sandwiching Ed Sheeran’s Eyes Closed (#5) with Karma at #6 as well. Elsewhere on the chart, we see What Was I Made For? by Billie Eilish debut at #47, as well as returning entries from Oliver Tree (the Robin Schulz-assisted Miss You at #48), Avicii (Wake Me Up at #49) and Dean Lewis (How Do I Say Goodbye at #50).

COUNTRY

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

It always seems to be Apple Music most keen to spotlight country artists on their flagship playlists – while Spotify did throw us the new jams by Carrie Underwood (Give Her That), Melanie Dyer (Dust) and Lane Pittman (Love In A Country Town) on their New Music Friday spread, Apple upped the ante by also featuring Hinterland (To The Limit), Luke Bryan (Southern And Slow) and Carly Pearce (Country Music Made Me Do It).

Shock and awe, Jelly Roll is still #1 on the Countrytown Hot 50 chart with Need A Favour – and yes, Luke Combs’ Fast Car is still #2, and The Wolfe Brothers’ Love Like That (featuring The Shires) is still #3. Morgan Evans even holds onto his #4 spot with Hey Little Mama, while Casey Barnes’ #5 spot from last week (which he took out with Boys Like Me) was snatched up by Travis Collins and The Wolfe Brothers, rising up from #11 with Runnin’ The Country.

We’ve got three debuts on the chart this week – Ain’t The First Time by Reed Foley at #37, Heartbreaker by Jess Moskaluke at #42 and Livin’ The Low Life by Rhinestoned at #48 – plus re-entries from James Johnston (GOT IT GOOD at #34), Brooke McClymont and Adam Eckersley (Lost If I Lost You at #41), Brad Cox (Last Time Last at #43), Morgan Wallen (You Proof at #45) and Cole Swindell (Drinkaby at #49).

Over on the Countrytown website, there were two video premieres this week: Come Back Home by Jay Santilli and Comfy by Tammy Moxon.