The Best Albums to Not Get Caught Speeding To

What makes for a good driving song? The soundtrack to the road trip can seriously affect how the trip goes - how fast you drive, how much you enjoy the drive, how many hours you can keep clicking those Ks away. I always find towards the END of a long road, my patience with my own music collection wears thin, and I am reaching for the skip button more frequently than I blink. In order to keep on truckin', a repetoir of solid sounds is most certainly required!

In the last 4 weeks I have driven 2378. A 50th on th Gold Coast, a wedding in the Blue Mountains, and a just-for-the-hell-of-it-cause-its-my-birthday-and-I-gotta-get-outta-here trip to Cathie. And with all those Ks, one needs tunes.

The criteria...
Must have some pace. Lilting beautiful ballads have their place, but it is not on the open road. The beat shouldn't be too fast, else the driving will be. And it shouldn't be too repetetive, else it will become boring.
Drum beats need to be clear enough for digits to beat out on the steering wheel, a la John Cusak in the opening scenes of Say Anything (sigh!)
Lyrics. Essential. The road is no place for the instrumental. Must be audible and recognisable and preferably known by heart to be belted out loud enough that one becomes light headed from lack of oxygen, and there is doubt about teaching a class on Monday morning without the husky voice.


And seeing as Top 5s are so Hi Fidelity, I like Top 6s. So in no particular order...

1. Only By The Night- Kings of Leon

A recent one, to be sure. But I defy you to keep under the speed limit as Caleb and his hairy Christian brother hit the waily parts of Sex on Fire or Use Somebody. The steady beat keeps the left foot bouncing and the thumbs on the steering wheel percussion are relentless. His voice is so much older than it should be!

Plus, once this record is done with I tend to skip through my faves from the back catalogue.

2. Vampire Weekend - Vampire Weekend

I've gotta agree with Ms Martha Elaine Belden. This is a killer album that it is impossible not to grin maniacally along with nearly every track. And, still in agreement, Oxford Comma is undeniably the best song on there, impossible to pass at just one listen. I love how their lyrics seem to be an injoke, a self referential smug allusion that only the truly pompous of us will understand and love.

For a NY band, they sound so terribly English, which of couse I love the pants off. Sam The Pommy Camera Man tried very hard to convince me that they were, but my musical geekery would not allow it. Anyway, their lovely slightly pompous lyrics, oh-so-catchy melodies and their bouncy high guitars just make you want to leap hills in a single frollick!

3. Made of Bricks - Kate Nash

I've never really been one for girly pop. I like my music with a bit of guts. But I really like this chick. She is a little bit Lily Allen (which is a bit of a dirty word in our house), but I find her stuff less posey and more like the theme song to reading Frankie. Very vintage floral frocks, but with the word Fuck inside. This album is also excellent for trying to deal with anger management, (particularly when coping with wayward teenage boys and their complete lack of respect for females generally. As previously whinged about here). Foundations and Merry Happy are highlights, particularly this side of the mountains

4. A Weekend in The City - Bloc Party

Concept Albums are just not made enough, I reckon. Even though this album was released WELL after my time there, just the opening chords/beats of every song have me walking down Finchley Road or standing on a tube platform or climbing the far-too-steep steps on a red double decker.

For the times when I am driving to The Big Smoke, or coming back, this album always seems to fit. Hypothetically, when one is preparing to see one's Ex's parents for the first time in AGES, a couple of listens to The Prayer will always help (but still doesn't quite prepare you to meet The New GF... hypothetically of course...). And I Still Remember is pretty much the most beautiful song ever written. The swelling up of joy when the beat kicks in starts way down in the bottom of the belly and explodes up and out and fills up the car and the freeway and all the valleys below. Best for the F3, but does nicely on any open road. And in fact this album is so good, it pretty much works for any occasion. An All Occasion Album.

5. Neon Bible - Arcade Fire

A scathing, satirical spit in the face of the Post 9/11 US, written from the safety of Montreal in Springsteenesque* rhythms and harmonies. Seeing these guys at the 08BDO was something akin to a religious experience** (. Kind of ironic, seeing as they write music which I interpret to be fairly seriously anti-religion. But not anti-faith, just anti-commercialised, homogeonised, bible under the neon sign kind of crap.

Obvious choices for driving songs include No Cars Go but especially Keep the Car Running. But my fave is Intervention. Again, swelling melodies and steering wheel percussion reign supreme on this album.

This album is particularly perfect for the Hunter Valley drive through the vineyards.

*In our household, this record is known as That Bruce Springsteen album. The fact that he has played with the Win & Regine on stage at one of his performances makes me grin like a lunatic, and heartily agree with the cinematographer.... "YES!!! YES!!! HOLY SHIT!!!".

**Followed immediately by another more violent religious experience - RATM at BDO. Just the thought of it gives me goosebumps!

6. Old Trees & New Branches - The Bastard Children (formerly CWQ)

Not the most populist of choices, but that is just because you haven't heard them yet.

CWQ (as they were then) played at the same venue as us when at the Edinburgh Festival last year. And despite the fact that I live only 1500kms (HA! Only...) from them, I had to travel 17 000kms to see, hear and discover that I am totally in love with every beardy one of these boys. They dress in 3 piece op-shop suits, wear flatcaps and fedoras and grow facial hair. Their songs include harmonicas (is there a sexier instrument?), piano accordians (the second sexiest instrument), the mandolin and their recordings include a sax.

The moniker of The Bastard Children is so apt - they have bastardised their sound from gypsies, country, folk, pop, rock... A bit like a Convict Rock sound. Good driving music, yes, but even better as drinking music...

Special mentions must also be made.

Laid, by James. Bitter, sexual confusion. That drum bit goes great guns on the dashboard. And those high notes are so much fun to no hit. Plus this song always comes up in trivia.

Anything by The Cure works exeptionally well for the To The Coast Mountain drive.