This Walking Sleep

Speck Mountain “Girl Out West” – This song is nearly nine minutes long, but it feels as though it’s nothing more than a few steps on a pilgrimage by foot from New York to the edge of California. The progress is maddeningly slow, but with every moment, you’re closer to the destination, or at least closer than if you never made the crazy decision to start walking in the first place. (Click here to buy it via Speck Mountain’s MySpace page.)

Sissy Wish “Yayaya” – Sissy Wish’s best songs also feel like stops along the path of some incredible journey, but close enough to the end point that there’s a sense of excitement and imminent fulfillment. It’s the feeling of almost having everything you need, and at least half of the things you want, but still needing to work out so much before it’s all set. It’s also the half-conscious awareness of the reality that once you get there, you need to continue to work twice as hard to stay there. “Yayaya” keeps rising to new plateaus, but each shift to the next level has the feeling of a brand new all-time high. (Click here to buy it from Sissy Wish.)