ROAD SONGS

ELLE EDITOR'S PLAYLIST

“LINGER”

When I was an angsty teenager, I listened to “Linger,” by the Cranberries, over and over on the way to and from the cottage with my family. That whole album, Everybody Else Is Doing It, So Why Can’t We?, serves as a soundtrack to my childhood, but the lyrics in that song—“You know I’m such a fool for you / You got me wrapped around your finger, ah, ha, ha / Do you have to let it linger?”—truly evoke the bittersweet memory of watching one last sunset at summer’s end before heading back home. – Brian Fleming

“AFRICA”

The opening riffs of the ’80s hit “Africa,” by Toto, stir something in me every time I hear it. And I’m not the only one—when it came on during my last road trip, the volume went up, the conversation went down and everyone in the car sang along. The fact that we got half the lyrics wrong—probably because they’re nonsensical (“Gonna take some time to do the things we never had”)— didn’t make it any less fun. – Ciara Rickard

“OLD PINE”

I’d describe myself as being a tad too nostalgic, a window-gazer and a daydreamer. One thing I’ve always loved is how listening to a song can instantly transport you to an exact time and place. Ben Howard’s “Old Pine” always takes me back to driving through the English countryside to go camping in Cornwall during the summer of 2013. The line that sums it all up? “Hot sand on toes, cold sand in sleeping bags / I’ve come to know that memories / Were the best things you ever had.” – Danielle Campbell

“CLOSER”

The first time I made the three-hour drive to my boyfriend’s cottage in the Kawartha Lakes region of Ontario, “Closer,” by Kings of Leon, came on the radio. Since we didn’t hit the road until 1 a.m., the drive through farm fields and sleepy townships in absolute darkness made the lyric “Stranded in this spooky town / Stoplights are swaying and the phone lines are down” eerily, beautifully fitting. It’s now required listening on every drive up north— even in daylight. – Liz Guber

“WE’RE HERE FOR A GOOD TIME ( NOT A LONG TIME)”

I jokingly added Trooper’s gloriously cheesy rock jam “We’re Here for a Good Time (Not a Long Time)” to a mix CD for a girls weekend in Wasaga Beach, Ont. But when the track came on during an inevitable traffic snarl on the 400, we realized that everyone in the car knew all the words—“We’re here for a good time / Not a long time / So have a good time / The sun can’t shine every day.” The song became an anthem for our yearly weekend of swimming and suntanning—we played it on the drive up every time. – Carli Whitwell