Late Night Driving Songs

Night driving is the best: the traffic has thinned to a trickle, and you're guided to your destination by a ghostly matrix of neon, halogen, and cats' eyes, alone with your thoughts, free to think. What you need is a soundtrack that blends introspection with the rhythm of the highway…and you'll find it right here, with Bono, "The Boss," and more.

As your wheels continue to eat up the white lines, and night's black shroud thickens around you, it's time to sink into a batch of tracks that resonate like the halo of a street light…from the 21st-century rock balladry of Richard Ashcroft's "Break the Night With Color" to the melancholy electronica of Moby's "Porcelain."

By now, you've driven so far into the night that you've conferred explorer status on yourself. Continue the nocturnal quest and become a true Vasco de Gama of pop, uncovering lesser-known cuts, like "Meditacao" from Brazilian bossa nova legend Nara Leao, or "Ghosts" from underground soul phenomenon Lewis Taylor.

While the world sleeps, you're at the wheel — part road warrior, part nightrider. And, to paraphrase Jerry Seinfeld, you're inside, outside, moving, and still . . . all at the same time. You own the asphalt, and your car becomes something greater than the sum of its parts: a music aficionado's contemplation zone. These essentials will nourish your mind as you clock up the miles. Among them, perhaps the ultimate late-night driving track: "In the Air Tonight" by Phil Collins, with its caffeine-rush drum explosion.