10 Tracks to add to your Driving Playlist

Picking your driving playlist can be a tricky endeavor. You obviously want to be picking music you like but nothing you know so well that you’re going to end up singing along with the tunes. You don’t want music that’s going to put you to sleep but you also need to make sure you’re not playing something that pumps you up so much that you end up pumping the speed you’re driving as well!

Ultimately your playlist is going to be a personal choice and you’re going to want to pick the music that works for you. So with that in mind here’s 10 tracks (and the reasons I picked them) that I love driving to.

1. The Suburbs – Arcade Fire – BPM 118

Arcade Fire is one of my favourite bands but ‘The Suburbs’ is not my favourite song by them. That’s one of the reasons this is kind of perfect for the playlist. It’s a tune I love but I’m not going to end up singing along with it as I drive. When picking a tune you’re going to be driving to you want to make sure you’re not TOO attached to it. If a track is going to turn your drive into an episode of car karaoke it’s probably a good one to leave off the list.

Plus, given its name, it really is perfect for pulling out of your driveway and driving around the suburbs…

2. Love Like a Sunset, Pt. I – Phoenix – BPM 125

With a BPM of 125 this one is slightly over our recommended Beats per Minute or BPM (we would say keep it under 120 if you can!) but I’m going to see if I can sneak it in as an edge case as I’d love to include some of Phoenix into this list.

A big reason this track works for me is due to the fact that it’s purely instrumental, there’s no distracting lyrics to throw you off while you’re driving. I like the way it builds and can make just sitting in traffic feel like you’re the main character in a blockbuster film but never so much that you’re going to get the urge to speed away and start weaving through that traffic!

Which would be bad… obviously.

3. Cloudbusting – Kate Bush – BPM 113

We all love Kate Bush, whether we knew about her from way back when or if you were recently introduced to her via season 4 of ‘Stranger Things’ (although I guess it wasn’t actually that recently, boy they really took a long time to finish that show off didn’t they?). So I just have to include her in this list. However we’re going to stay far away from ‘Running Up That Hill’ I don’t want to end up hitting the acceleration pedal like I’m trying to blast my way out of Vecna’s mind palace (or wherever the heck Max was trying to escape from). That’s why I think ‘Cloudbusting’ is the perfect driving track, a tune from a great artist, that isn’t going to make me want to suddenly flee for my life (an important factor!).

Plus it’s so upbeat I can’t help but feel great when it comes on (despite being about the slightly depressing topic regarding a fraudster parent and his run ins with the government).

4. Innerbloom – Rüfüs Du Sol – BPM 122

Innerbloom is a track that you can just put it on and let it fade into the background. It’s one of the reasons why I think it’s one of the ultimate chillout tracks for studying, working or driving. If you’re ever feeling road rage and need something to calm you down. This is probably the tune I’d recommend.

5. Pearl Cadilac – Gary Clark Jr. – BPM 120

I can hear you saying it already “Who the heck is Gary Clark Jr.? Is there even a Gary Clark Sr.”? The answers are that he’s a modern blues musician and I don’t know. I got really into the blues as a genre after ‘Sinners’ came out (the movie that proves that every film can be improved by adding Michael Lee Jordan by having two of him) and there’s no going back now. Gary Clark Jr. is one of the best modern blues musicians out there. So now you can impress your friends with your knowledge of the blues with this slightly obscure, slightly on theme driving tune!

6. Veridis Quo – Daft Punk – BPM 107

Daft Punk is one of the greatest bands of their generation but boy was it hard to find a track under the recommended 120 BPM by these guys! It’s probably because electronic dance music is not usually a genre we’d recommend selecting when picking your driving tracks. Too many beats in those minutes I guess, not to mention the goal of that music is generally to get you pumped, excited and dancing. Not a things super useful when driving.

Veridis Quo is probably a track we can sneak in though, it’s fully instrumental (which always helps) and it’s got a pretty chilled out vibe so I think it’s something you can drive to without getting distracted. If you have a favourite artist you really want to include on your driving playlist do a bit digging and you might be able to find one of their tracks that you can make work!

7. Aint Got No/I Got Life – Nina Simone – BPM 114

If we’re going to include some golden oldies you can’t get much better than Nina Simone. She’s got a whole bunch of tracks that I feel are pretty great to drive to but this one is one of my favourites. It’s also always great to include music that’s upbeat and puts you in a happy (but not singing along distracted) mood, I think this track does that perfectly.

BAILE INoLVIDABLE – Bad Bunny – BPM 119

We’re all loving Bad Bunny right now and a great thing about a foreign language song is it’s very hard for the lyrics to distract you too much (unless, in this case, you speak Spanish. In which case maybe find another track, in French perhaps? Or German? I don’t know how many languages you speak but there’s gotta be something out there for you!).

The fact that it’s in another language is the main reason Bad Bunny works for me as a go to pick for driving. With this song in particular it feels super upbeat and fun to drive to, even though in reality it could be about something super depressing, I’ll never know!

CHIHIRO – Billie Eilish – BPM 110

As a big fan of Billie Eilish I wanted to add one of her tracks to the mix and CHIHIRO is one of her newer ones that feels like a great track to drive to that I don’t know well enough yet to start singing along to. When we’re picking tracks by our favourite artists it’s usually best to go with music we’re not super familiar with when it’s an artist who you usually like singing along to. Just remember to take them out of the rotation if you find yourself starting to get to into it! Music is there to help us focus, not distract!

Timber Hearth – Andrew Prahlow – BPM 96

What’s this? Music from a video game? Why would you put this on a playlist that people are going to end up judging you for?

Well, hear me out. As you might have already discovered the soundtracks from movies, TV shows and video games are sometimes the absolute best source for finding great music for study, work or driving. They’re usually instrumental and they’re straight up composed with the idea of playing in the background and not pulling focus away from what’s going on. In that way I’ve always found video game and movie soundtracks to be the perfect place to start building your playlist. This one happens to be from one of my all time favourite games but your own favourite game or film is probably the best place to start looking for music that works. Just remember to stick to the golden rule of keeping the BPM low and not picking music that is going to distract you. That means no game boss tracks from remind you of the time you wanted to throw the controller across the room or tracks from that scene at the end of film that made you cry!

There you have it. 10 tracks to get you started on your own playlists. If you want to hear them all you can click right here but remember these are just MY favourite driving tunes! Follow the tips I’ve given you and you’ll soon be on your way to making the perfect driving playlist for you!