Playlist: On Public Transportation Late at Night

Taking public transportation in the morning or the afternoon – on your way to or from work, say – you need something that will keep you hyped up and alert. Tunes that will protect you from the swaying crush of bodies, and overcome screeches and staticky howling commands from the front. You need a soundtrack that can block out smells.

This is not that soundtrack. This is one for late-night journeys, long slides you go on only once in a while, when you’re moving toward or away from something unusual. The ones where you climb onto the bus or train and actually get a seat, or all the seats, and the overconditioned air wraps you in absence, and you rest your head against the milky rattling window in between you and the city, and watch the lights blur in the streets or in the tunnels, and all that lovely lonely epic stuff.

[STREAM THE PLAYLIST HERE]

All You Ever Wanted – The Black Keys
Amplifiers – Atlas Sound
Hysteric – Yeah Yeah Yeahs
I’m Not – Panda Bear
We’ve Been Had – The Walkmen
City of Electric Light – Chad Van Gaalen
I’m Bound to Pack it Up – The White Stripes
Major Label Debut – Broken Social Scene
Chinatown – Destroyer
Flim (LP Version) – Aphex Twin
Oslo in the Summertime – Of Montreal
Taxi Cab – Vampire Weekend
Green Guitar – RatTail
Benton Harbor Blues Again – The Fiery Furnaces
Clouds Over the Pacific – James Pants
Let Down – Radiohead
Good Song – Blur
Want It Back – Amanda Palmer & The Grand Theft Orchestra
City Middle – The National
Blue Light – Bloc Party
Keys Out Lights On – Jenny Owen Youngs
Feel So Good – Spacemen 3
Born Slippy Nuxx – Underworld

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Cara

Cara is a former contributing editor for Autostraddle and a current staff writer at Atlas Obscura. She lives in Somerville with her girlfriend, their roommate, and a cat who can flush the toilet, and is generally thinking about gender, sustainable biodiversity, and/or rock & roll music. You can follow her on twitter @cjgiaimo if you want.

Cara has written 113 articles for us.

8 Comments

  3. This is perfect. Will this be a series? Because lord do I need the morning ‘pretend I’m not actually crushed face first into a large sweaty man’ get to work one too!!

  5. I’m just going to pretend that I live in an awesome city with public transit when I listen to this playlist. Sigh.

  6. Always Bloc Party. First album. Sleeping overnight at the train station to get the train at 5am from Birmingham to Liverpool for university. Bee. Liss.

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