The 5 in the Afternoon Road Trip Playlist

The final installation of my “Road Trip” trilogy (Part One: The 4 in the Morning Road Trip Playlist, Part Two: The 9 in the Morning Road Trip Playlist), I give you The 5 in the Afternoon Road Trip Playlist, a list of songs which I think you’d like listening to in the evening as you cruise on down that dusty highway. At this point during the trip, all the travelers – particularly if there’s an even number, so that everyone feels as though they can pair up for soul-searching – have gotten vaguely melancholy and are probably revealing information about themselves that had been better left unrevealed. Throw on these tunes to both allow passengers to indulge their self-pity and to stop them from uttering any new sentences that begin “I’ve never told anybody this, but …”

The Five in the Afternoon Road Trip Playlist

1. ‘Lovers in a Dangerous Time’ by the Barenaked Ladies (The original was by Bruce Cockburn, and it was great, but I really dig the Barenaked Ladies’s; their very basic, accoustic treatment brings out the melody more than Cockburn did.)

2. ‘Two Characters in Search of a Country Song’ by the Magnetic Fields

3. ‘Mad Summer’ by Joe Hisaishi (from the soundtrack to Takeshi Kitano’s fantastic film Kikujiro)

4. ‘Life for Rent’ by Dido

5. ‘Save Tonight’ by Eagle-Eye Cherry

6. ‘The First of Autumn’ by Enya

7. ‘Mr. Tambourine Man’ by Bob Dylan

8. ‘Green and Gray’ by Nickel Creek

9. ‘Night Drive’ by Gotye

Here’s a video of Joe Hisaishi playing “Summer”, another track from the same film as “Mad Summer”; it didn’t fit with the playlist, but it’s a really lovely piece and I thought you ought to hear it:

Joe Hisaishi rocks my world.

Disclaimer: I don’t own this video. I got it here.