The Best 20 Songs for Flying + When You’re on the Road
Okay, so if you’d read this far – you know how much I like to travel… but did you know that music is actually my first (and still very prevalent) love?
When I was a teenager, all I wanted was to be a famous singer-songwriter. I still do, sometimes – but as I’ve grown up, I’ve realized what is out of reach and what’s actually reasonable.
P.S. – I play four instruments.
P.S.S. – if you visit my YouTube Channel, you’ll figure out which four instruments they are :)
Anyways, if you’re anything like me, and like to pretend that your life is a never-ending music video and need some constant, contemplative background music to the soundtrack of your movie… then this post is for you.
Honestly, I’ve probably got 100+ songs that I could share with you… but for now, here are 20 songs that are absolutely perfect for staring out the window high above the Earth or gazing out the window of a high-speed train.
1. Sixteen by Chelsea Cutler
Ugh. One of my favorite ‘indie’ artists – because let’s face it: isn’t she getting too popular to be indie, anymore? I found Chelsea Cutler back in May of ’18. She’s got some golden stuff… but for flying… this is perfect.
It sounds like nostalgia.
Favorite Line: “Growing up means growing tired, I guess…”
2. Run & Hide by Sabrina Carpenter
If there was an artist in my library of 1,200+ songs that I wish would get more credit where it’s due, it’s without a doubt Sabrina Carpenter. The message of this song is so real and so important.
It has that eerie electric guitar that makes for the perfect travel song as you stare out the window.
Favorite Line: “Traded out our eyes to light a screen, traded out holdin' hands to holdin' back everything, no, no, no, no, oh…”
3. These Days by Macklemore, Jess Glynne, Dan Caplen
This one was on repeat a lot during my last trip as I had 3.5 weeks of thinking long & hard about how hard it is to let go of someone.
Favorite Line: “They say that things fall apart… we were gonna move to Brooklyn, you were gonna study art.”
4. It’s Not Living (If It’s Not With You) by the 1975
This is one of my many “love songs” that make me think of how I feel about being in Europe… but I think the lyrics relate to many of us when traveling. The way Matty Healy depicts “living in a simulation” really gets you thinking about what you’re “supposed” to be doing and what you really want to be doing.
Favorite Line: Ooh, stupid question.
5. Road Less Traveled by Lauren Alaina
Kind of the epitome of a travel song… and not just by the name. This one is all about following your heart no matter what they’re saying about you – to keep doing what you want as long as you believe in the intuition of your spirit.
It’ll ring true no matter where you are in the world.
Favorite Line: “You won't make yourself a name if you follow the rules…history, gets made, when you're acting a fool.”
6. Don’t Stop Believing by Journey
All I can think of when I hear this song now, is sitting on the plane from Melbourne to Queenstown, and how absolutely, utterly dumbfounded I was that I was about to hit my sixteenth country… and that I really was Down Under after all those years of just dreaming about it.
Favorite Line: “Working hard, to get my, fill… everybody wants, the thrill…”
7. anemone by slenderbodies
This song is so mystical, that it’s nearly unsettling by the way it sounds but it’s oh so good.
Favorite Line: “I like it better underwater.”
8. Blackbird by The Beatles
When I was on my birthright trip in Israel, my bus buddy played this one as we shared a pair of headphones nearing the Carmel Market in Tel Aviv. All I can think of when I hear this one, is how I was 5,864 miles away from “home”… but that somehow, I felt more at home than I ever had in my entire life. It was as if the further out there I was, the closer I got to myself… I think it was the true moment I realized, that for me, home is whenever I’m not “home”.
Favorite Line: “All your life… you were only, waiting, for this moment, to arise…”
P.S. This feeling of “home” is elaborated on my own original song on Spotify ;)
9. Free Fallin’ by Tom Petty (John Mayer Version)
I knew Europe was my place from the very first time. There have been too many moments of soul-binding confirmation to count: but one of the best ones I have is when I was on the plane from Budapest back to Tel-Aviv after spending three weeks traveling Europe alone.
I’ll never forget the sweet whir of the plane’s engine vibrating below me and the utter peace radiating in my whole body as John Mayer softly struck his first chord of this song.
Favorite Line: “I wanna free fall out into nothin'… oh, I'm gonna leave this, this world, for a while…”
10. Zoom by DNCE
Joe Jonas’s band is so underrated. Dude, “Cake by the Ocean” is not their peak. Please also listen to “Dance”, “Truthfully”, and “Still Good” while you’re at it…
… but for traveling, this is the one. It’s a true “bop” as you kids would say. Joe is basically singing about wanting to take his love anywhere in the world she wants, as he has a “full tank” that’s ready to drive as he, “looks up at the sky”.
Needless to say, it’s perfect.
Favorite Line: “Where you goin’… cause I’m goin, too… where you goin’… I wanna ride, with you.”
11. Hey Look Ma, I Made It by Panic! at the Disco
When I was in Perth, the most isolated international city in the world…
… this was my song.
It was the day I felt like I had really, finally “made it” – I had traveled so far & wide in such a short amount of time.
Favorite Line: “Friends are happy for me or they’re honeysuckle phonies…Then they celebrate my medals, or they wanna take my trophies…”
12. Beautiful Mystery by Katie Costello
Ugh.
I’ve been a diehard fan of hers since freaking 2011, man. No one knows her and it still drives me nuts.
This one is to satisfy the moments when we’re wondering, “what’s out there” and realizing that there’s so much Earth left to still see.
Favorite Line: “You're the missing link… tied together dreams.”
13. Here With Me by Elina
Bless one of my favorite T.V. shows, The Bold Type, for hooking me up with this one.
If I’m being honest, 2019 was a really hard year for me… but this song got me through a lot of it. There’s so much that’s out of our control… all we can do is breathe in today.
Favorite Line: “Do you think there’s anybody up high, looking down, watching us, wishing we'd enjoy the ride?”
14. All We Know by Alesia Cara
Growing Pains is an album that is all about, “what it feels like to outgrow your late teens” and transition into young adulthood… as I turned twenty-one this past summer, I feel that. This and “Growing Pains” got me through the cruelest summer of my life.
Similar to, “Here With Me”, you get to a point where you realize known of us really know anything. You just gotta roll with the wind in this crazy universe that we’re all living in.
Beware: this one is incredibly contemplative on the meaning of life… it’s almost too perfect for flying.
Favorite Line: “Paul says, "Let it be"… but the other's, said, "The test is key"…”
15. Out Loud by Alejandro Aranda
One of the most innovative and unbelievably talented creatures to come out of American Idol. I am convinced that Alejandro Aranda wrote this for me for my June 2019.
When flying, there is no better time to look back at your life and go over all the mistakes, and what would and could be so different…
Favorite Line: “It’s hard to, say the, truth, out, loud…”
16. Nashville by David Mead (Cover by Taylor Swift)
Specifically great for a train ride… and no, not just because she’s singing about being on a train. Like, “Out Loud”, this one is really busy looking back at the past – but that’s what a lot of us do when we’re on the road.
Favorite Line: “Going back to Nashville, laughing at a bad break, what's the use of wondering why?”
17. Diving by Bridgit Mendler
Ahh!
An airy, nostalgic tune that blends in with the clouds you blaze through in the sky. I’m trying to be patient waiting for this woman’s return to music, but after two years… I’m losing hope.
This one is written about lost love, and wondering where someone who used to mean the world to you is now… but for me, all I hear is Europe’s sweet name of adventure calling my name.
Favorite Line: “But I got a, trail of thoughts, that keep us connected…and blue.”
18. Turn Right by Jonas Brothers
Okay.
Let’s get one thing straight.
The only good thing to come out of 2019 was the Jonas Brothers getting back together.
I’m a massive fan of their new stuff (cough “I Believe” is the song I will be listening on my one-way flight to France cough) but let’s turn the clock back ten years for this one.
It’s all about the “racetrack” of life… the directions we decide to turn, and how they affect us. Brings me back to December of 2017, on board with birthright headed to Israel on Swissair about to travel solo.
Favorite Line: “Hope to see you, on, the finish line…”
19. Love on the Weekend by John Mayer
The feels. Mayer dropped this record right before I went to Europe for the very first time at 18.
The biggest dream of my entire life was about to come true.
It reminds me of the duality of travel: how mother-freaking fantastic it is (“I’m busted up, but I’m loving every minute, of it”) and how much you know you’re going to hate it when you have no choice but to go back to your mundane life and take yourself off of the ever-so-natural, effervescent high.
P.S. – It was actually a Friday when I was sitting on my plane to Paris across the Atlantic Ocean for the first time in May of 2017… I couldn’t believe I was finally going, that I was finally going to “see your face”.
Favorite Line: “I gotta leave you, it’s gonna hurt me... my clothes are dirty, and my friends, are getting worried…”
20. Brand New Eyes by Bea Miller
This one was a marker for me in Budapest. Running around that city (one of my favorites, in Europe) is when I realized that I had finally seen myself & everything I wanted after being so confused for so long.
Favorite Line: “Everyone is letting me show, a side, of myself… I, can’t, see…”
21. Bonus: The Entire “Nation of Two” Album by Vance Joy
I’m not sure what to say besides that this is the record for in flight music. I’m convinced no artist will ever create a better, “in the air” album.
Favorite Songs: “We’re Going Home”, “With You”, “Alone With Me”, “Saturday Sun”, and “Bonnie & Clyde”
P.S. I love Vance Joy.
P.S.S. He’s just a bit underrated, too.
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