Picture this. You’re leaving a friend’s house at midnight while the city falls asleep and the street lights flicker. Sliding into the driver’s seat, you adjust the rearview mirror, click on your seatbelt and shift gears into drive. You live only a few minutes away, leaving time for exactly one song to carry you home. Which track do you choose?
This installation of Cat’s Collection is not an assertion of which song you should choose to play in the car, but which songs you shouldn’t. These songs aren’t poorly written, produced or sung. Instead, these songs are too good. They are bewitching, consuming and even intoxicating. In the interest of safety, you should never drive under the influence of one of these six tracks.
1. ‘Chasing Pavements’ by Adele (2008)
While Adele’s discography contains many songs that qualify as hazardous, a late-night drive to “Chasing Pavements” is nothing short of catastrophic. The track begins slowly as Adele’s domineering voice muses, “I’ve made up my mind / Don’t need to think it over.” For 46 seconds, the track crawls toward an explosive chorus. “Should I give up or should I just keep chasing pavements,” Adele belts, releasing the tension. In this cathartic crooning, Adele unleashes mountains of melancholy and waves of wishful thinking over the listener. How does one drive and drown simultaneously? Adele’s rhythmic pleading is infectious, forcing the listener to nod along, pretend to perform at a sold-out Madison Square Garden show or put the pedal to the metal.
2. ‘Before He Cheats’ by Carrie Underwood (2006)
As of 2023, “Before He Cheats” by Carrie Underwood was the seventh most popular karaoke song in the United States, and this doesn’t even account for the carpool kind. “Before He Cheats” is the quintessential breakup anthem: it includes pity for the next girl, anger at the stupid ex-lover and just a little petty crime. Like “Chasing Pavements,” this track gradually increases in intensity. Starting slow and sultry, Underwood sings, “Right now, he’s probably slow dancing / with a bleached-blonde tramp.” In its aversion to subtlety, this track is seductive and lures listeners to the dark side. At the climactic chorus, Underwood reveals, “I dug my key into the side / of his pretty little souped up four-wheel drive.” If this veritable vandalism doesn’t get your blood pumping and your speedometer shaking, you might need to check your ears.
3. ‘my tears ricochet’ by Taylor Swift (2020)
Among the many tried-and-true components of a Taylor Swift album, a gut-wrenching track five is always guaranteed. From the defeated “Cold as You” (2006) from her debut album to her most recent track five ballad, “So Long, London” (2024), these tracks encapsulate the most ferocious, searing and desperate tones of Swift’s discography. “my tears ricochet,” from her surprise 2020 album “folklore,” is no different in its sentimentality. “my tears ricochet” begins with an angelic harmony, reminiscent of a church choir on a somber Sunday. The scene is set, and it’s not a pleasant one. “We gather here, we line up, weepin’ in a sunlit room,” Swift sings softly. But what makes this song dangerous is not the haunting harmonies or piercing prose but the powerful bridge. In this section of the song, Swift laments and lashes out singing, “I can go anywhere I want / Anywhere I want, just not home / And you can aim for my heart, go for blood / But you would still miss me in your bones.” If you are listening to this track behind the wheel, you might not make it home either.
4. ‘Edge of Seventeen’ by Stevie Nicks (1981)
From the first strum of the electric guitar, “Edge of Seventeen” readies the listener for a wild ride. Jumping straight into the chorus, Stevie Nicks growls, “Just like the white-winged dove sings a song / It sounds like she’s singin’.” The momentum carries throughout the song as a strong percussion set accompanies Nicks’ powerful voice. This song simply begs the listener to roll all the windows down, turn the speakers so loud that the car shakes and glue the gas pedal to the floorboard. The verses reflect this intensity as Nicks sings “And the days go by like a strand in the wind / In the web that is my own, I begin again.” As the highway beckons and the street lights blur, “Edge of Seventeen” is the perfect passenger.
5. ‘Hold My Hand’ by Lady Gaga (2022)
Like Adele, Lady Gaga’s discography is overflowing with powerful and intoxicating tracks. “Hold My Hand,” the lead single from the “Top Gun: Maverick” (2022) soundtrack, is Lady Gaga’s most recent ballad. “Hold my hand, everything will be OK / I heard from the heavens that clouds have been gray,” Gaga begins. While the verses are strong, the beat-drop and Gaga’s impenetrable belting of the chorus is magical. “So cry tonight / But don’t you let go of my hand / You can cry every last tear / I won’t leave ‘til I understand,” Gaga sings. Accompanied by methodical percussion playing, this chorus is like an ascension. And with four tires off the ground, it’s a little hard to control the wheel.
6. ‘drivers license’ by Olivia Rodrigo (2021)
This list would not be complete without the ultimate late-night drive anthem, “drivers license” by Olivia Rodrigo. The track skyrocketed the indie-rock artist into the spotlight for good reason. “drivers license” is pop at its finest — powerful and emotional. Yet, it’s still an absolute banger. This pop-perfection is equally devastating and dangerous. After turning the key into the ignition, Rodrigo starts slowly, “I got my driver’s license last week / Just like we always talked about,” Rodrigo sings. The emotional intensity boils and bubbles before spilling over in the passionate bridge throughout the track. “Red lights, stop signs / I still see your face in the white cars, front yards / Can’t drive past the places we used to go to / Cause I still f*****’ love you, babe,” Rodrigo belts. With this candid confessional blasting from your car speakers, it’s only a matter of time before you get that “drivers license” revoked.
