Here it is: our 100 favorite Atlanta tracks of 2024!
The year 2024 marks our sixth annual list. While it’s tempting to ruminate on the numerous challenges our music community has faced in the past six years, it is also undeniable that with each year the Atlanta music scene faces those obstacles with greater resolve and deeper empathy.
Thank you to the artists, venues, promoters, listeners, show-goers, and music lovers that made this year special. We are so proud of your talent, creativity, inventiveness and resilience.
Mainline’s 100 Favorite Tracks of 2024
100. “Longstreth” —Auricle
99. “Honeysuckle” — Why Girls Kills
98. “See You Soon” — High Visceral
97. “YOUR EXCUSE” – FRIGID
“I’ll give you a winter prediction: it’s going to be cold, it’s going to be grey, and it’s going to last the rest of your life.” FRIGID’s debut opens with a sample of a quote from the cozy, family-friendly flick Groundhog Day for a decisively uncompromising and pissed debut demo EP. Pairing members of team deathmatch, Big Yellow, and Gothlantastan, the quintet is a local supergroup delivering us hardcore that’s as pummeling and unforgiving as a street fight. On “TAINT,” it’s hard not to scowl and throw some fists to FRIGID’s ice-cold riffage and singer Lana Stonecipher’s snarl. The band’s a freight train and if you’re in the way, get out or get wrecked. – Jake Van Valkenburg
96. “Scar” – Los Gargoyles
95. “I think I hit a deer” – Hagan
94. “Against the Grain” – Squeamish
93. “Surreal Dreams” – Alley Rainy
92. “Big Smile” – Store Closed
There’s a lot of heart on More Waiting, the debut of Isaac Robledo’s solo project under the name Store Closed. The songs are uneasy and anxious, reaching for balance against anxiety, self-doubt, and a heavy helping of hope that things can get better. “Big Smile” is the highlight out of the bunch, delivering a mantra of “faking it till you make it” against jangly emo and 90’s inflected indie rock. – JV
91. “For No One in Particular” – Trial Run
90. “America Business” – Pterocat
89. “COME SENIOR” – come senior
88. “Lie To Me” – Blurry
87. “Cambodia” – Tunnels
86. “Syndrome” – Y’all
85. “Bart Cup” – /Hospitality/
84. “Narcissus Is Within You” – Walking Heads
83. “the chameleon in the room” – flea circus
82. “Brenke Fish Ladder” – 3 Women
81. “Colt 45” – Miller Low Life
80. “No One Annoys Me (Like You)” – Small
79. “Summer Girl” – Secret Towns
78. “sleepfearhatelove” – Slime Ring feat. Keron
77. “Atmospheric Conditions” – Yes Man Jr.
76. “Klostqikpa” – Chuck Blunt Strider
Chuck Blunt Strider is one of the many aliases of local house DJ and producer Sam Henrich. On his debut tape with Rope Bridge Records, You Have Been Here Sometime, Henrich shows off his own warped brand of house music that pulls from klezmer, dub, techno, and video game music – sometimes all at once. “Klostqipka” is a highlight, even through your earbuds, you can almost hear it reverberating through rafters at a crowded warehouse gig. From the warbling bass line, crunchy piano parts, and a glistening chord that blasts confetti throughout the song, Henrich’s talents lie in mashing together off-kilter and disparate sounds to create something totally unique. – JV
75. “Girl on the Internet” – Lowtown
74. “Come Outside” – B.I.M.B.O.S
73. “I Woke Up Thinking of You” – Divi.jpg
Divi.jpg’s discography is that of parallel universes; each distinctly its own, each in conversation with the other. Her third studio album, To Jacob: Songs to Sing in The Afterlife, fine tunes gothic futurism into an extended elegy on the nuances of grief, melding their classical roots with the surrealist marks of hyperpop. “I Woke Up Thinking of You” is sparse yet ornate— think Björk if she were looping the Evanescence Fallen album. It’s a palette as contradictory as loss itself, earnestly supplicated as she repeats: grief is love with nowhere to go, grief is love with nowhere to go. – Lindsay Thomaston
74. “Doubt” – Elle
71. “Halfway House” – Doud feat. Ezra Pounds
70. “Anarchy” – Lesibu Grand
69. “Big Star” – Mad Ace…
68. “Pure Black Tendency” – Janie Danger
67. “Pray” – Whiphouse
66. “i cant hear you .” – a blue room feat. Mixed Matches
65. “kreb” – Big Yellow
64. “Navel Gazer” – Split Diopter
63. “Simple Sins” – good will son
62. “reverse gorgon” – hannahbolecter
An anti-hero’s journey drenched in apocalypse, title track “reverse gorgon” from hannahbolector’s latest finds her Southern Gothic meddlings growing increasingly uncanny. A pistol-hipped prowl of enjambment, flipped folklore, and seething dirt road doom, hannahbolector’s knack for poetry is evident, with invocations of Greek mythology feeling more fresh than heavy-handed or cliche. The more sinister sister to Lowtown’s (which she fronts) 2023 record, God’s Chicken, “reverse gorgon” isn’t for the girls who claw at the yellow wallpaper; it’s for the ones who gnaw and chew the plaster into a fine, pasty wad until its form cements a spitball for their adversary’s cheek. – LT
61. “Glimmer” – Split Silk
60. “skeleton” – Envilittle
Envilittle has a special talent of creating grungy, emo-adjacent pop songs that would’ve killed on 90’s alternative rock radio. Their songs “stacey” and “People With No Regrets” are immediate scene classics and “skeleton” is no different. This time employing more shoegaze elements in the vein of Pittsburgh greats feeble little horse, “skeleton” shows more restraint than their previous work, without losing their ear for a catchy hook. It’s a welcome evolution for the young band, establishing them as the Atlanta DIY’s own micro hitmakers. – JV
59. “Energia” – Ladrones
58. “Clue” – SCOR
57. “UNCLE ROBOT” – Oceaneater
56. “bert” – Olive Hoover
55. “fade away here” – TRASHCLUB
54. “No Sounds” – Psychic Death
53. “ICU” – Elesa Sparkle
Despite pushes for audio equalization in the streaming age, far too many songs remain casualties of The Loudness Wars, and all the more so with its latest and greatest patience-sacrificing sidekick: TikTok. Beyond interesting and intentional production, the waiting game of good songcraft feels particularly at risk, with the payoff of subtextual pacing traded for immediately digestible sound bites. Elesa Sparkle is marked safe from all of the above. On single “ICU,” the push-pull of synthy keys to acoustic and the snap of jangly to heavy delivers brain-scratching ear candy, while read-between-the-line lyrics underpin a bittersweet connotation for its buoyant stride. Cancel The 1975 as you will, Elesa Sparkle has Britpop flair to spare. – LT
52. “Boss hog” – Hail Gail
51. “The Bricks” – Scare Quotes
50. “Permanent Wish” – Ammonia Wash
49. “LO” – Chick Wallace
48. “Pleasure Zone” – Chandelier
47. “Hey, Who Really Cares” – Noa S.
46. “All You Can Eat” – Hostage Pit
45. “Sunflowers in December” – Twelve25
44. “One More Hour” – Dinner Time
43. “Check Engine Light” – Equal Creatures
42. “Are You There God? It’s Me, Wieuca” – Wieuca
41. “Skyscrapers” – Forlorn
Listen, I don’t know anything about atmospheric black metal but this rules. Forlorn is the black metal project of Sean Gruttadauria, who’s played with a number of local bands like Symbiote and Mission Hill, and this new effort really puts into focus how far out he can get. “Skyscrapers” somehow fuses together black metal, progressive rock, ambient, and drum & bass seamlessly within five minutes. If you put corpse paint on a medieval knight and sent them to a warehouse rave, it would probably sound a little like this. – JV
40. “Blackhole” – Yearn
39. “I Need Ur Ass Now” – Sag
38. “Hole” – Olivia O.
37. “Beauty of Angels” – Lorie
The opening shot of the music video for “Find Your Way” captures an adorable fluffy white dog running through a grassy field, which, to be honest, is exactly how this song makes me feel. It’s a glistening, catchy track that feels instantly timeless in its composition and execution. It has that intelligent art-pop quality akin to Stereolab mixed with Lush’s dreamy shoegaze and tied together with its own introspective lyricism. The full EP’s full of these starry-eyed songs that together can be understood as a treatise for brighter, sweeter, and kinder living. – JV
36. “Trigger Machine” – Made Up
35. “Drown” – Rose Hotel
34. “Separation” – Krystal V.
33. “Free Love” – Mick Mayer
Mick Mayer is undoubtedly an Atlanta music scene veteran. He’s played in experimental DIY group Polish Nails, alt-country band Honey Harper, adult contemporary duo Mayer & Mayer with younger sister Elle, and most notably, long-running art rock-turned-pop outfit Red Sea. However, 2024 saw Mayer taking his first foray out on his own with the album Moonflower, an easy-listening pop record that weaves together stories of intimacy and queerness with pastoral imagery and disarming sincerity. Carrying a little hint of each one of Mayer’s versatile array of previous projects, “Free Love” marries his predilection for homey, singer-songwriter earnestness and big, passionate harmonies, then lays them tenderly on a bed of ’80s city pop synths. – Autumn James
32. “Moons of Saturn” – Atlanta Space Quartet
31. “Intimation” – Isaac Bishop
30. “Rushing” – Vangas
29. “Them in Myself” – Reed Winckler
The minutiae of tender moments with a loved one or the grief of growing older and wiser is fertile ground for lyrical inspiration for Reed Winckler. Her debut record Gull is full of intimate moments, soundtracked by only Winckler’s voice, acoustic guitar, and occasional contributions from a Casio keyboard gifted to her by her grandmother. “Them in Myself” sounds like a secret set to tape, the soft chimes of a keyboard leading the yarn Winckler spins like street lights blinking off one by one as the night grows darker. – JV
28. “Grease” – Sudie
27. “SHADY” – CDSM
26. “car accident” – Hill View #73
Hill View #73’s indie folk has never sounded bigger than on “car accident,” the closer on their record night time is the grace period. Bandleader Awsaf Halim stares in the face of life’s brutal indifference armed with distorted guitars and anthemic lyrics, sounding like a mix of Alex G and Modest Mouse. It’s a sprawling epic of a song and a hell of a way to end a record. Cathartic, urgent, and explosive, Hill View #73 knows how to write a barn burner of a song. – JV
25. “lines” – BbyMutha
24. “Exclusive ray ban discount Code” – Kaitlin Simotics
23. “Laughing At You” – Ruqiyah.
Atlanta-based by way of Newark, Ruqiyah.’s “Laughing At You” offers a bass-heavy diptych into the rapper’s geographical influence. “I’m getting commas / you’re getting karma,” she taunts over quintessentially Jersey Club beats. Her self-assured delivery is rooted in Southern tradition, her sarcastic laughter a percussive headbang giving nod to Atlanta’s resurging rave movement where she met her current producer and “Laughing At You” collaborator, crai bbyy. An anthem for those whose DMs are prone to intimidated suitors, “Laughing At You” presents an exciting transition from ruqiyah.’s 2021 debut EP, Revenge Tapes. Simps and snakes alike, heed warning: Ruqiyah. has sharpened her sense of unbothered bravado into a fine stiletto heel, and it might just end up on your neck. – LT
22. “Beast of Leaves (Live)” – Abby Gregg
21. “How Can I Tell” – Starsiren
20. “shadow talk” – Annie Leeth
19. “St. Benedict” – Zoe Bayani
18. “Never Enough” – Makenna Lyric
“Never Enough” is an invitation. Textured and earthen, the opening track of Makenna Lyric’s debut record, Leap!, parts the pinewood curtains on an ambient-folk realm crafted, recorded, produced, and divined entirely by her own hands. Softly twanged arpeggios assume the stuff of fairy rings and will-o’-the-wisps. Bidding you closer still, Lyric’s voice assumes aria, dancing like the late afternoon sun across your favorite childhood creek. – LT
17. “Insert a Thought” – Nag
16. “Like Bird Changes” – Psaltery
Seeing Paris Watel-Young and Howard Stewart play together as Psaltery is a special thing. As a duo, the project pairs together two dexterous and inventive musicians to deconstruct the typical singer-songwriter mold for something that feels genuinely new. It’s jazz, it’s slowcore, it’s a secret third thing. Paris’s guitar playing is as fluid as water, at times jagged and blocky and other times smooth and shimmering like light reflecting off glass. Their experimental approach creates a new sonic language for navigating inner turmoil, relationships, and the existential dread of it all. “Like Bird Changes” showcases the band weaving through the grief of seasonal depression of the cold winter months the way they know best: uncommon time signatures, impossible guitar playing, and emotions laid bare. – JV
15. “Not Anyone” – Mallbangs
On Mallbang’s “Not Anyone,” the dissociative humdrum of everyday life whirs into existential overwhelm. Uninspired routines get ticked off like milk and bread to a grocery list until the cabin fever of surviving can hold no longer: the forests are burning! The malls are dying and the whales are too! What’s the point of washing my hair? The alt lo-fi project of Aidy Smith, “Not Anyone” hails toward the hazy experimentations of their 2022 EP, Checking For Daggers, with mellowed muscle memory giving way to an absolute glitchfest. – LT
14. “Some Kind of Fool” – Breathers
13. “Don’t Deny It” – True Blossom
12. “Wishbone” – spiderhouse
11. “Digest” – Decker D’Alesio
10. “Daylight on TV” – Strumbrush
Strumbrush’s kaleidoscopic art rock envisions worlds of color, adventure at every turn, and the darkness that lingers underneath it all. The band’s debut record Whirlwind is an explosion of ideas: guitars blossom and wither within seconds and the songs morph, twist, and fly away as they’re played. “Daylight on TV” is a fantastic chapter in their storybook of psychedelic noise, displaying a knack for catchy melodies and whimsical songcraft that feels like a thing of magic. – JV
9. “Sprain” – team deathmatch
2024 was a banner year for team deathmatch. The year saw their local profile as one of the leaders of Atlanta’s small but burgeoning shoegaze and slowcore scene. At times tender and fragile and other points massive and crushing, team deathmatch’s distorted indie rock opens a Pandora’s box of noise to get lost in. “Sprain” is a great introduction to the band; it’s a dramatic, thorny and searing number led by Reed Winckler’s tales of fraught adolescence. – JV
8. “Some Say” – Vessel
Atlanta music scene history is littered with eager, young bands that met their demise all too soon. Balkans, Warehouse, Pallas – all called it quits right when they seemed to be on the precipice of something big, but are still remembered as some of the city’s best and brightest DIY offerings. Just eight months after releasing their full-length debut, Wrapped in Cellophane, Vessel joined the ranks of legendary defunct Atlanta bands of yore, after announcing an indefinite hiatus and playing their final show in December. Graciously, Vessel left us with a more than appropriate eulogy in raucous album closer “Some Say.” Building into Wrapped in Cellophane’s most unbridled, cacophonous moments, “Some Say” is a fitting reminder that Vessel might be gone, but that don’t make them dead. – AJ
7. “ecco/flipper” – Floral Print
floral print’s guide to practical living and magical thinking is a record that throws in everything but the kitchen sink. Genre-wise, it’s tough to pin down – partly math-y and angular, but a little too post-hardcore and emo-indebted to be considered full-fledged post-punk. Structurally, it’s brimming with ideas, ping-ponging between gesturally ambient and meticulously calculated. Lead single “ecco/flipper” embodies the anything-goes ethos of floral print’s guide to practical living and magical thinking. Coming out the gate buoyant and monotonous, the final third of “ecco/flipper” is hi-jacked by an exacting, poppier movement to serve up one of the catchiest moments on the record. – AJ
6. “My Lobotomy” – Buckhead Shaman
In a time when the temptation to dissociate is as strong as ever, Buckhead Shaman – the new-agey, pseudo-spiritual alter ego of hypnagogic pop artist Tyler Hobbs – delivers “My Lobotomy,” the smooth-brained anthem we didn’t know we needed. Densely chaotic enough to loosen your grip on reality, “My Lobotomy” is a lo-fi fever dream of gauzy vocals and jangly guitar with a layer of wacky, vintage Hanna-Barbara-esque cartoon sound effects to further fuel the nightmare. Fortunately, Hobbs’s pop sensibility is familiar and grounding enough to plant you back in lucidity. – AJ
5. “Perfect Person” – Pinkest
Long have Pinkest teetered between the British invasions of The Beatles and Buzzcocks to structure their psychedelic power-pop. On their latest EP, As Real As Life Can Be, they plunge headfirst into the latter. “Perfect Person” forefronts the unit’s theatrical tendencies in raucous salvo with an energetic ode to the picket fence visions of a honeymoon phase. Jarringly charming and delightfully zany, it’s Atlanta’s answer to Harvey Danger’s “Flagpole Sitta” in an era of ditching Tinder because the dating pool is —to quote the masses— “filled with piss.” – LT
4. “Try Try Try” – klark sound
Few artists out there can be accurately touted as virtuosic, but it is the most suitable description for multi-instrumentalist Clark Hamilton of klark sound. This makes Hamilton as prime a candidate as any to answer the lofty title of his second album What Is Music. The distilled pinnacle of What Is Music’s contemporary reissuance of sunshine pop, “Try Try Try” is certainly klark sound’s most tunefully encouraging attempt at an answer. It’s a brazenly optimistic call to create in the face of uncertainty and a reminder that occasional self-doubt is inevitable, even for the most gifted amongst us. – AJ
3. “Deadman” – Playtime
While touring across North America for the past couple years with the likes of rising stars Ballista, Zulu, and SoulGlo, Playtime have proven themselves as one of Atlanta’s premiere hardcore exports. Luckily they aren’t overly road-worn – Playytime finally returned home with a highly-anticipated follow up to 2020’s The Fun Never Ends, and it appears their travels have made a remarkable impact. Their latest EP, Deadman Tapes, finds Playytime at their most self-assured, and aesthetically-focused. Opening titular track “Deadman” shows Playytime’s trademark dark, chugging intensity has come to full maturation with a menacing new potency and confidence. – AJ
2. “Too Far” – Improvement Movement
On their 2022 full-length debut Don’t Delay, Join Today!, Improvement Movement took a kooky, experimental approach to their retro, soft rock influences. Second album, Slump, subdues most of the psychedelia to boldly wear their affection for manicured, polished yacht rock on their sleeve, without fear of bordering on pastiche. Standout single “Too Far” is a jaunty amalgamation of Improvement Movement’s top-tier 70’s references: smooth, soulful vocals via Steely Dan; funky, staccato piano a la The Doobie Brothers; and doot-da-doot’s straight from Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young. – AJ
1. “Compliment” – Omni
Even though Omni didn’t really go anywhere – like everyone else, they took a couple years off from their extensive touring schedule during the pandemic and hit the road again in 2022 – their fourth album, Souvenir, feels like a triumphant return of sorts after the almost 5 year gap since 2019’s Networker. Shedding the crunchy lo-fi of their first two records, Deluxe (2016) and Multi-task (2017), the production on Souvenir is shinier and more dynamic. Frontman/bassist Phillip Frobos’s vocals are noticeably higher in the mix, letting his lyricism take a leading role opposite Frankie Broyles’s whipsmart, restrained style of guitar playing that tends to be Omni’s greatest selling feature. It’s also a marked songwriting level-up. There’s no snoozers and arguably any track on Souvenir could have served as a solid single, but its crown jewel is certainly album closer, “Compliment.” It hits all the classic Omni marks: herky-jerky riffs, schmoozy vocals, infectious hook. However, Broyles is the real star on “Compliment,” loosening his pent-up post punk jitteriness to break bad on an anthemic classic rock-inspired solo. It’s a bonafide showstopper, and the highest point in Omni’s catalog to date. – AJ
