Top 10 Driving Songs
- The Top1039
- Ashley Paige’s version
- Your version
By Ashley Paige
Great jams for a great ride: you won't find any of the stale songs-about-cars on this list!
×Modest Mouse - Float On
Only the first line of this Modest Mouse song has anything to do with cars or driving (“I backed my car into a cop car the other day”) but I love when “Float On” comes on when I’m taking a long drive. Modest Mouse is more often than not one of the dreariest, most pessimistic bands around, but this is a surprisingly optimistic song. We will all be all right. Good news is coming. Just keep on rolling.
×Those Darlins, Red Light Love
This is an infectious song that I have a tendency to play more than once in a row. It’s a sweet, yet incredibly rocking and upbeat, song that is about the uncertainty and pure joy of a young romance, built around the story of a new couple taking a simple joyride around town. The entirety of Those Darlins’ self-titled debut album is great driving music, full of rocking classic country (like Carter Family country) covers and spirited originals, such as “The Whole Damn Thing” and “Wild One,” that have made this new band a huge favorite
×Sia, Breathe Me
Maybe I’ve seen too many TV shows or movies with this song, but I love to listen to “Breathe Me” while I’m driving because it just feels so cinematic. While it is kind of a sad song, I’ve never really minded that. Sia has a really captivating voice, and the song itself is filled with lots of highs and lows and rhythm changes that can really add something to a long trip that’s otherwise full of monotonous scenery.
×Radiohead, Idioteque
I think “Idioteque” is an incredible song to drive to, particularly at night. It’s easily one of the best songs of the decade (Pitchfork, in fact, placed it at #8 on their Top 500 Songs of 2000’s list). Supposedly, the lyrics were written by drawing phrases from a hat, but it’s nonetheless a dramatic and kind of scary song that seems to have a creepy cohesion. When this song comes on, I always wake right up.
×Arcade Fire, No Cars Go
The Canadian band Arcade Fire actually has several songs about driving (or not driving) or about cars in general, but this one is my favorite. “No Cars Go” is a song about knowing a place where no planes, ships, subs, or cars can go. I don’t actually know where that may be, unless it’s that place “between the click of the light and the start of the dream” they sing about at the end of the song. There are two versions of this song; one version was released on the band’s debut EP, and later recorded for their album Neon Bible. I like both. A lot. The entirety of Neon Bible is perfect for driving.
×Santo & Johnny, Sleep Walk
I’ve often been driving along at night when, all of a sudden, it starts pouring rain, just buckets. Once, as if I were in a movie, Santo & Johnny’s famous instrumental “Sleep Walk” came on as one of these torrential rains started up. It seemed natural, though theatrical. Now, whenever I’m driving in the rain, I want this song to come on to get me in a certain frame of mind. I also really like Modest Mouse’s lyric-ed adaptation, “Sleepwalking.”
×Rilo Kiley, Silver Lining
The truth is that most of Rilo Kiley’s music, to me, has a really nice groove that makes it perfect for a journey. However, whenever “Silver Lining” comes on when I shuffle the songs on my iPod, I never skip it, which is something I can’t say about many other songs. The song has nothing to do with cars or driving, but it is nonetheless about a journey all its own. Much of the album Under the Blacklight, in fact, is really perfect for a road trip.
×Ask
I like to listen to almost anything Smiths or Morrissey while driving, but I decided to put “Ask” on my Top Driving Songs list because of the line, “If it’s not love, then it’s the bomb that will bring us together.” It’s a simple little song about how you should feel comfortable to ask your lover for anything set upon the background of the typical Morrissey-macabre. And it’s rather dancey, too! Watch your foot; this song will make you speed.
×Belle & Sebastian, The Blues Are Still Blue
I’m not quite sure what it is about this soft, poppy British band that makes me so happy when it pops up on my iPod, unless it’s simply because of the soft, poppiness of the music, which is likely the case. “The Blues Are Still Blue,” from Belle & Sebastian’s 2006 album The Life Pursuit, is just so much fun (as is much of the album itself) even if it describes the rather depressing details of the speaker’s life, how the blues are always blue.
×Bohemian Rhapsody
Maybe this song is a bit obvious (though probably not as obvious as including, say, “Radar Love,” which you will almost always find on all such lists) given its Wayne’s World history, but I don’t really care. This song is great for the car, period. It’s best when you have many people in the car with you but, I’ll be honest, having other people around is not at all mandatory if you know how to enjoy yourself.
