The best way to travel long distances is to set the drive to a wicked soundtrack. These albums are made for speeding down highways in your hot rod, windows rolled down, and the music turned up

1) ZZ Top’s Greatest Hits

ZZ Top seemed to specifically make music for barreling down the highway in a souped-up low-rider. Rough and gritty blues rock coupled with raunchy and (let’s be honest, pretty sexist) macho lyrics make for a down and dirty soundtrack for your next journey over hot highway pavement. ZZ Top originated in Houston, Texas in 1969, but the band didn’t reach major stardom until the early 1980’s with hits like “Sharp Dressed Man” and “Legs.” Taking from their southern blues roots and adding flamboyant machismo, ZZ Top created some major staples of fuel-injected cruising music. True to their sound, one of ZZ Top’s defining symbols was their flame red 1933 Ford coupe: a low riding hot rod that made its appearance in many ZZ Top music videos. With spinning guitars, dark sunglasses, beautiful women, and sexual innuendos out the wazoo, ZZ Top knew how to entertain. Their Greatest Hits album complies hard-hitting and revved-up songs that are sure to have you lean your seat all the way back, put on your cheap sunglasses, and cruise down the Texan desert.

2) Bob Seger & The Silver Bullet Band’s Greatest Hits

The very first song on this album is “Roll Me Away”—an empowering song and story about travelling away from the hardships of life, feeling the wind in your hair and the power to choose your own path. The feeling lasts throughout the album with hits like “Hollywood Nights” (my personal fast-driving favorite) and “Night Moves.” Bob Seger’s classic roots rock follows themes of blue-collar life, a life he himself was familiar with. You can hear the classic American sound in songs like “Turn the Page,” “Like a Rock,” and “Mainstreet” that are perfect for rolling down a sunny highway. When listening to this album, we are reminded to appreciate the simple and strong things in life, with the long American highway stretching out before us.

3) Deep Purple’s Deepest Purple

Along with Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath, Deep Purple is considered part of the "unholy trinity of British hard rock and heavy metal in the early to mid-seventies." What is better to listen to than some lightning bolt 70’s hard rock when you’re flying through the air on your mystic automobile? This compilation album consists of Deep Purple’s most elaborate, heavy, and strong metal songs like “Burn,” “Fireball,” “Speed King,” and my personal 80MPH favorite, “Highway Star.” Deep Purple might not be the best known of the Forefathers of Metal, but they have one of the most diverse sounds. Their music is not only heavy, but elaborate and well-constructed. The guitar riffs are perfectly played along with rich synth and keyboard solos that make for intriguing and always-captivating music. “Child In Time” exemplifies Deep Purple’s ability to meld together excellent musicianship and other-worldly fantasy through powerful guitars and vocals and precise synth and keyboard.

4) Tame Impala’s InnerSpeaker

InnerSpeaker, Tame Impala’s first major EP, received high acclaim after its release, winning Rolling Stone’s Album of the Year Award in 2011. The overall flow of the album is impeccable, each song seeming to flow into the next. The style and sound of the album harkens back to 1960s psychedelic rock music, with the lo-fi sound and ethereal soundscapes created by hard guitar riffs altered and expanded by the heavy use of pedals and mixing technology. This album provides the perfect backdrop for a fast drive because of its smooth, flowing lo-fi sound punctuated by hard-hitting drums and Kevin Parker’s distinct, vintage voice. Songs like “Solitude is Bliss” and “Expectation” exemplify Parker’s ability to transform music using only his flowing Lennon-esque vocals. Instrumental songs like “Jeremy’s Storm” and “The Bold Arrow of Time” create enveloping backdrops to your next long, psychedelic journey.

For the next long drive you have to make across this great country of ours, consider these four albums as the soundtrack to your journey—you’ll feel empowered, cool, lifted, and shifted into the right gear.