The 10 best albums for midnight drives
Sad drives to outrun the feelings. Happy drives coming home from somewhere fun. Emotional drives of all shapes and sizes to process things when the wheels spin. There is a distinct energy on the roads at midnight.
With the street lights and the moon casting everything blue and wistful, midnight drives are cinematic no matter where you are. Even if you’re rolling down the road after a service station stop-off, just trying to get from A to B, nighttime car rides are built to be romanticised.
Thousands of playlists are scattered across Spotify with the vague title of “Midnight Drives”. While some take it in an angsty way, filled with shoegaze and soft rock, others find love on the open roads with a tracklist full of grand emotional declarations. Spanning across genres, styles, sounds and spirits, the vague title is tied together with a mutually agreed-upon dedication to making celluloid moments. The songs are always cuts that could soundtrack life’s big and small moments as the cities and sights fly by.
For our recommendations, we’ve cast a wide net. Including some all-time classics that feel custom-made for car radios, along with some new releases that are begging to be played on the go; all they need is an AUX cord and a second to hit play. Spanning from grunge to lo-fi, acoustic cuts to full-scale productions on the grandest level, whatever energy the night brings, there’s a record here to match. But make sure you drive safely, no matter what the mood is.
The 10 best albums for midnight drives:
Devon Ross – Oxford Gardens
For motorway moodiness or late-night drives through dull towns, lean into the angst with this new EP. Devon Ross has revealed herself as music’s newest cool girl with her blues-dripped guitar licks and nonchalant energy. While reminiscent of Kim Gordon’s brand of cool, Ross merges it with a broad scale Rolling Stones energy as her riffs feel timeless and catchy.
Tracks like ‘I Don’t Wanna’ and ‘Swim’ are cinematic in a distinctive way. Their melancholy, paired with soaring guitar moments, captures the feeling of the dark night sky while city lights glimmer in the distance. Never getting too raucous to be distracting; it’s the perfect amount of rock and rage for safe but grumpy driving.
Beach House – Depression Cherry
Some songs are built for this occasion. Whether it was purposeful or not, some artists manage to utterly bottle the distinctive, almost indescribable energy of a midnight drive when the world is quiet and still. Beach House’s ‘Space Song’ is one of those tracks.
Throughout Depression Cherry, Beach House could soundtrack a million movie moments. As Sofia Coppola loves her car window shots, it’s easy to imagine songs like ‘Space Song’ or ‘Levitation’ playing gently in the background as her characters rest their head on the glass and watch suburbia roll past.
Molly Payton – Mess
Another new artist to add to your driving playlist is Molly Payton, who makes perfectly wistful indie cuts out of London. Her more recent material is good to go to for a more euphoric driving soundtrack, especially the track ‘Bandits’ which is custom-built for feeling like lovers on the lam.
But if the world is getting you down and the nighttime brings sadness, dive deeper with her 2020 EP, Mess. “If you want a clean slate, go fall in love with somebody else,” she sings on ‘1972’, sure to get tears swelling if you need some catharsis. Or on the closer, ‘No One Else’, Payton captures the devastation of small heartaches in a track suitable intimate for solo moments driving home in the dark.
M83 – Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming
If you’re looking for euphoria, look no further. M83 is another staple artist in driving playlists, and this 2011 feels utterly built for that singular purpose. As the beats come in, they seem to mirror the rhythm of wheels turning and the road racing underneath. This album begs to be played when the streetlights flash and fade like spotlights.
Tracks like ‘Midnight City’ and ‘Wait’ are ready to carry any listeners through the whole spectrum of feelings. With 22 songs, the extended record is perfect for lengthy car rides, starting out in high spirits before softening into more introspective, intimate sounds as time passes and the sky creeps towards dawn.
LCD Soundsystem – Sound Of Silver
There is one reason for this album’s inclusion, and that one reason is good enough to make this record a must-add to your driving playlist. The song ‘All My Friends’ demands to be heard from car speakers as your wheels roll down some extensive motorway or highway somewhere. It’s a song built for that specific feeling of going from A to B, from one adventure to another, ideally with a best friend in tow.
The rest of the record sounds just as good. It’s a perfect one for keeping your blood pumping and your brain engaged as the miles tick on. Livelier cuts like ‘Us Vs Them’ will keep your spirits high, while ‘New York I Love You, But You’re Bringing Me Down’ is there to provide a bit of emotional relief when the night gets too long.
Bruce Springsteen – Born To Run
Obviously, this had to be included. Bruce Springsteen might as well have invented driving when he released tracks like ‘Thunder Road’ or ‘Born To Run’. There is perhaps no other artist that comes close to the Boss when considering road trip records as Springsteen writes music set to soundtrack vast, long highway journeys.
If you’re flagging and in need of some classic rock motivation, Born To Run is a great record to turn to. The full band power, with its thundering drums and honky tonk keys, will help power the journey onward and pass some time with a good singalong, thanks to this perfect mix of timeless anthems and underrated album cuts.
First Day Of Spring – Fly Over Apple Blossom
Another new artist making suitably cinematic music is First Day Of Spring, a group hailing from Southend-On-Sea. Across this four-track EP, they touch all corners of nostalgia, angst, adoration and upset, ready to soundtrack whatever mood you find yourself in as the road keeps rolling.
Their sound is a perfect merger of expansive and intimate as all good car ride albums are. Opener ‘Death Day (Sing To Me)’ will make the dark nights seem still and quiet, ‘Moon Boy’ will transform them into a movie set, while Operation’ will serve as a fuel up in the middle. An intricately layered release with just the right amount of variety, it’s a perfect late-night, back road companion for cruising around.
Boa – Twilight
If the night feels too long and too dark, let Boa bring some light. This underrated 1990s indie band have enjoyed a resurgence of attention lately, with tracks to hits like ‘Duvet’ and ‘Twilight’ being picked up by a new generation of music fans. Reminding the world of their greatness, they make great driving tracks.
As the album winds between full-band alternative greatness into gentler, folkier acoustic moments, the variety is perfect for powering on through a long drive. Suitably cinematic as well, this is the main character, cinematic music just as a midnight car ride demands.
Slowdive – Souvlaki
Shoegaze was built for midnight drives and cinematic moments. When it comes to the genre, Slowdive have always led the way, creating some timeless hits that sound just as good in venues as they do on the A1. As the full band comes in on ‘When The Sun Hits’, make sure the euphoria of the moment doesn’t make you hit the acceleration too hard.
The 1994 album, especially the deluxe edition, is a perfect car companion. Once again, offering a broad range of sounds from slow, sad cuts to bigger and heavier moments, the full spectrum of moodiness is on display. But across every song, the double album remains cinematic in that low light, blue-toned way that a midnight drive deserves.
Cocteau Twins – Heaven Or Las Vegas
Who even cares if you can’t make out a word they’re saying? Sure, you might not be able to sing along to this Cocteau Twins record, but it perfectly captures the feeling of the world passing by in all it’s romantic glory.
This 1990 album especially stands out as their finest work. The opening number ‘Cherry-Coloured Funk’ is perfect for bringing some lightness to the dark night, while closer ‘Frou-Frou Foxes In Midsummer Fires’ leans into the darkness for some melodramatic angst. In between, the band take you on a tour of their distinctive dream pop world, making even the dullest of drives seem ethereal.
