Nat Vazer is Grateful in the Charts!

Music Moving the Metro Chart

With International Womens Day over this past weekend, Melbourne’s Nat Vazer has made a timely appearance on this week’s Amrap Metro Chart with Grateful, her tribute to all women. Grateful is like an open letter to society extolling the virtues of all the significant females in our lives, set to fittingly gorgeous and heartfelt pop. Vazer weaves glistening guitar melodies with a symphonic sense of arrangement, then offers a gnarly twist in her sound and words, suggesting the thought of being grateful doesn’t necessarily come easy. It’s a thoughtful tune that should be a standout from her upcoming debut album and live shows around the east coast. Grateful sits at number six this week on the Metro Chart, and for something a little more off-kilter, turn your attention to the oddly-named e4444e, the bedroom-pop project for Newcastle resident Romy Church. Hitting number four this week on the Metro Chart with the single Wolves, this new signing for indie icon Spunk Records definitely plays off the same kind of technicolour melodies as Animal Collective with the laidback slacker feel of Pavement. Nice.

Leading the Way on the Regional Chart

Here’s one out of the box: the return of the once-incredibly-popular Things of Stone and Wood after 17 years! Hits of yesteryear are often for music fans of a certain ilk but Things of Stone and Wood’s Happy Birthday Helen seems to be an earworm that’s made its way across different generations. Now, here’s a new song that shows they were no one-hit wonder. If You Go Down To The River shows time hasn’t wearied the band’s polished roots sound – it’s an impassioned stomper with some sweeping slide guitar and rolling piano lines. No surprise it’s popped in at number seven on the Amrap Regional Chart this week, and no doubt regional community broadcasters are very keen on the forthcoming comeback album, The Final Forest.  Queensland’s Blues Arcadia are in the Regional Chart with the soulful Two Wrongs (Don’t Make A Right), channelling all the heart and power of the classic Stax and Motown sound. Rightful winners of three Australian Blues Music awards, they’re doing very nicely at number five this week. 

Beyond the Charts

Pakistan-born Mahmood Khan just might be one of the few artists you have heard of that has sold over 6 million albums. Khan’s debut album made him the first Pakistani artist to break into the US world music charts. In 2007 he came to Australia to study at film school and wound up recording a live album at the Sydney Opera House. He was granted citizenship in Australia in recognition of his contribution to the Australian music industry after his song Like A Rive went to number one on Aria’s pop charts. Fast forward to 2019 and he recorded again at the Sydney Opera House, this time around with the Willoughby Symphony Orchestra. Runaway is one of the resulting recordings and it’s one of the catchiest numbers you’ll find on AirIt this week.  

If you are a community broadcaster and looking to find the latest tracks from across the country, get involved with Amrap's AirIt and start browsing what Australia's independent music scene has to offer!

The Amrap Charts show the top ten tracks ordered for airplay by community broadcasters through the Amrap’s AirIt music distribution service in both metropolitan and regional areas of the country. Amrap is an initiative of the Community Broadcasting Association of Australia which distributes new Australian music to community radio stations nationwide & empowers broadcasters to promote new Australian music on air & online.