I just had a five-hour car ride home for Easter break full of me and my thoughts. Luckily, my car has a sunroof, so my perfect road trip recipe is music blaring + Swig soda (specifically Pink Bahama with cream) + sunroof open. I love curating music and playlists so here are 10 songs that are always on my summer road trip playlist.
1. Brazil – Declan Mckenna
Whenever my friends and I pile in the car, open the sunroof, and drive around campus, this is my go-to song. It has such a fun beat, and always makes me dance in my seat. I am obsessed with Declan’s voice, and I don’t know what he put into this song but I can not stop listening to it. It’s the starting song on most of my summer playlists because it just feels like the highs that come with the first few days of summer.
2. Can I Call You Tonight? – Dayglow
One of the band members of Dayglow went to my high school, so I always say I listened to Dayglow before they were popular. This song transports me to endless summer nights full of possibility with its catching lyrics and irresistible melody.
3. Love Lost – Mac Miller and the Temper Trap
I adore the original version of this song with just the temper trap, but Mac Miller on this song makes it a million times better. I can’t explain my love for this song in any other way, but whenever I have it playing on my speakers, I feel like I’m the main character in a coming-of-age story who is taking a long scenic drive.
4. Kiss You – One Direction
One Direction is one of the best summer bands, and I will stand on this hill forever. They are such a mix of nostalgic fun and blaring them in my car takes me back to middle school swim parties. This song reminds me of falling in love for the first time in the summer and the excitement that comes with being in love during summer.
5. Now That We Don’t Talk – Taylor Swift
I can’t make a summer or road trip playlist and not include Ms. Swift. It’s just not allowed. 1989 TV’s vault tracks live rent-free in my mind. I love “Now That We Don’t Talk” because it’s such an angsty song laid on top of a vibe and fun beat. I can’t wait to spend the summer driving around my hometown with friends screaming this song out the driver’s side window about past encounters with fraternity men.
6. Unwritten – Natasha Bedingfield
Full honesty, I never knew this song existed until I heard it in the movie Anyone But You. This song is the perfect let-your-hair down, forget-all-stress, and remember-how-awesome-life-is bop. This song screams summer possibility to me, and it will be on every destination playlist I make this summer.
7. Dancing in the Dark – Rihanna
So this may be from a kid’s movie, but I maintain that it is one of the best summer songs out there. This song gives me night-swimming, laughing-until-your-stomach-hurts, eating-burgers, and late-night-drive vibes. This is such a dancing song and I always have a great time while driving when it comes on.
8. Talk Too Much – Coin
I was way too obsessed with this song my summer before my junior year, so this song holds a special sense of nostalgia for me. This is the perfect song to blare through the speakers on your way to a late-night bonfire at the beach.
9. Saturday Sun – Vance Joy
Whether it’s a new friendship or a potiental relationship, this song encapsulates the feelings of meeting someone new in the summer. I’m obsessed with Vance Joy and I think his entire discography could be a summer roadtrip playlist on its own.
10. Shotgun – George Ezra
There was no way I could leave a song with the lyrics “I’ll be riding shotgun under the hot sun / Feeling like a someone” off of this list. This is the perfect song for driving around especially when you’re with your friends on the way to a fun summer destination.
Bonus – Marlboro Nights – Lonely God
This is a “bonus” track because the song only clocks in at 1:04, but it always leaves me wanting more. This song starts with the lyric, “I don’t wanna go to school tomorrow / I can’t study thinking about you”, and this is just the perfect way to describe the feeling of crushing as school comes to an end. Even if you’re not crushing, the song could be used to describe friends, summer as a whole, and so many other things.