It’s easy to forget, when you’re stuck in a line of beeping cars, crawling along at five miles an hour, that driving can be fun. This is the beauty of driving at night: you can relax and cruise through near-empty roads, soaking up the atmosphere and clearing your head of all your worries. Driving at night is simpler, lonelier, but often much more enjoyable – and we’ve picked out the perfect soundtrack to complement the experience.
Leonard Cohen − Tonight Will Be Fine
This simple, chilled out track perfectly mirrors the feel of driving at night and Leonard Cohen’s soothing tones will help all your troubles melt away as you sink back into your seat and let the road soothe you.
Puscifer – Momma Sea
Dark and atmospheric like the world outside your car, there’s also real groove to this one which should have you bobbing your head and tapping your fingers against the steering wheel on your cruise through the night.
Pelican – Strung Up From the Sky
This one’s a little heavier in places so might not be for everyone, but there’s a slow, rhythmic pulse to it that has the feel of an engine smoothly ticking over as you glide down empty streets.
Sigur Ros – I Gaer
Sigur Ros are known for the epic sweep of their songs and ‘I Gaer’ is a perfect example. It provides a rich, dark audioscape to fit the night time atmosphere beyond your windscreen.
Joe Satriani – Sleep Walk
This downbeat song from guitar maestro Joe Satriani is the perfect song to wind down with thanks to the gentle melody and beautiful ‘singing’ quality of Satriani’s guitar.
DeVotchKa – ‘Til The End of Time
Muted guitars perfectly compliment the dreamy vocals for a chilled-out song with some real warmth to it – and just a touch of that mystical gypsy goodness. Perfect for easing a troubled mind after a hard day.
Eddie Vedder – Guaranteed
Eddie Vedder’s strong, resonant vocals soar through this track, with its stark simplicity evoking a powerful sense of remoteness and satisfying loneliness that dovetails perfectly with the feel of driving at night. Perhaps unsurprising, since it comes for the soundtrack to ‘Into the Wild’, a film about a man’s self-imposed exile from society.
Eddie Grant – Do You Feel My Love
Although the lyrics are about walking away from someone rather than driving, this song’s sense of leaving things behind is ideally suited to the night driver leaving their troubles behind or simply on the way home from seeing loved ones.
Pink Floyd – Comfortably Numb
Although something from Dark Side of the Moon might seem like a more obvious choice, ‘Comfortably Numb’ resonates with the serenity of night time so well that it just had to be on the list. One of the most chilled-out songs around from one of the greatest bands of all time.
Phil Collins – In the Air Tonight
Finally, no night driving playlist would be complete without ‘In the Air Tonight’. The pulsing drum beat, sparse, drawn out guitars and Collins haunting vocals perfectly capture the atmosphere of the night, making this our overall champion of night driving songs.
Above all, night driving is a celebration of freedom. The freedom to get out, clear your head and really enjoy driving without a hundred other motorists in your way. Sadly, that freedom isn’t free – so, when it comes to afford your dream machine, car finance can be a real lifeline. Let the experts at The Car Loan Warehouse help you find the money you need for the car you want – at a rate you can afford. It’s car finance, without the hassle.
