Sounds of 2012: Nos. 15 to 11

Five posts left with Sounds of 2012! That's because, from here on in, I'm going to be reducing the number of tracks I cover each time by one. So today there are five, next time there'll be four, and the final post of all will be devoted entirely to the song that Everfree Radio's listeners voted to the head of their Top 100. The usual quick reminder of my inclusion criteria first – although really everything by this point gets in under Rule 3 if nothing else.

Rule 1: Still available in the same or (1b) similar form direct from the artist
Rule 2: Available from a third party, with reason to believe the artist is fine with this
Rule 3: So famous that it would be plain silly to leave it out
Rule 4: Being unlisted is not, on its own, grounds for exclusion

15: WoodenToaster & The Living Tombstone (feat. Rina Chan) – Lost on the Moon
14: H8_Seed & WoodenToaster – Awoken
13: Forest Rain (feat. Decibelle) – Great to be Different
12: AwkwardMarina – Anthropology (Lyra's Song)
11: WoodenToaster & The Living Tombstone – Love Me Cheerilee

If you feel like accompanying me past the break, you'll find that I've written a little bit about each track, as well as embedding a video for your listening pleasure.

15: WoodenToaster & The Living Tombstone (feat. Rina Chan) – Lost on the Moon

Rule 1: uploaded to YouTube 12 Aug 2012
Quite a collab, this, with three big names in WoodenToaster, The Living Tombstone and the gone-from-YouTube Rina-chan. (Though she's on Wikipedia under her real name of Kira Buckland.) Naturally it's the last-named who provides the vocals here, though I've never been entirely sure what the song is about. I've always rather assumed it's about Luna, but the image used on the video doesn't show her anywhere. It's pretty well produced, though I personally would prefer if they'd tried not to fit in quite so many words, as it comes across as a bit breathless at times. There's a link to various streaming services in the video description, but I don't think this is available for outright download.

14: H8_Seed & WoodenToaster – Awoken

Rule 1: uploaded to YouTube 30 May 2012
Another WoodenToaster classic, this time in collaboration with the artist now found under the name Trace Mychal. This song is described as "a sort of spiritual successor to 'Rainbow Factory'", and its subject is a worker at that terrible facility who wakes up to the horror of what he's doing and wishes to redeem himself. This is, as the kids apparently say these days, an absolute banger. Or possibly a bop. Maybe a millipede? I'm too old to keep up with youth slang. Anyway, it's a great song, one that despite its distorted synthiness not always being to my taste, I can't help but smile at when it comes on. This song still slaps. Or bounces. Or slithers. Whatever. As with the previous track, it doesn't seem to be downloadable in HQ, but you can find it on some streaming services.

13: Forest Rain (feat. Decibelle) – Great to be Different

Rule 1: uploaded to YouTube 30 Aug 2012
This track's enduring status as one of the MLP fandom's greatest classics is such that I was genuinely startled to see that it didn't make the top ten. Forest Rain created something very special all those years ago when she made this track about a pony whose life is given new meaning after receiving a message from Derpy. Yes, it's sappy and sentimental, but who cares? For those too new to the fandom to remember: long ago, at a con, someone left little envelopes around for attendees to open. One of the messages inside said, "Isn't it great to be different?" This, this right here, is the aspect of our fandom that makes me love it. And yes, it is still here in 2019. Some may only know the BronyDanceParty video, but that version is almost two minutes shorter, and I prefer the longer one, whistling and all. Get it in HQ for $1 on Forest Rain's Bandcamp.

12: AwkwardMarina – Anthropology (Lyra's Song)

Rule 1: uploaded to YouTube 26 Sep 2012
Another song that remains a huge fandom favourite, AwkwardMarina's musical-style number is based on the even earlier fanfic by JasonTheHuman. I'm not a massive fan of the fic, but I love this track. Yes, the whole "Lyra is obsessed with humans" thing has got old for the most part. No, this song hasn't. The upbeat, perky rhythm, AwkwardMarina's fine singing voice and a legendary "WIP Rough Storyboard" animatic by isaiahdjkim all go into making it a memorable experience. (There's been no update on that for five years now, so we can be pretty sure it'll never be a finished piece of animation. But actually, I think it works very well as an animatic.) There's a very popular remix by Yoka the Changeling, but I'll stick with the original, cheers. No HQ download that I could find, I'm afraid.

11: WoodenToaster & The Living Tombstone – Love Me Cheerilee

Rule 1: uploaded to YouTube 11 Feb 2012
Here we have WoodenToaster (again) and The Living Tombstone (again) with a fairly typical song of the era for these two. Given that the track came out the very same day as "Hearts and Hooves Day", it's possible (though I don't know) that it was a quickly-arranged piece inspired by the background pony who blushingly hands Cheerilee a card. Anyway, this is a "kid has a crush on the teacher" storyline, something which is as old as time and not especially creepy unless you choose to see that. Tombstone's vocals have the usual early iffiness to them, but the beat is very strong. BronyDanceParty's PMV has more views than the actual song. As usual with WoodenToaster stuff, no HQ download but a bunch of streaming links.