Sounds of 2013, Nos. 74 to 70

I've left this a bit longer than I'd hoped, so let's get back to it. For "Sounds of 2013", which counts down Everfree Radio's fan-voted Top 100 fandom tracks for that year, I follow four simple criteria to tell me whether a song gets included here. They are as follows:

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

For the third time running, all the songs in the part of the list I'm looking at make it through those criteria, so here we are:

74: Evening Star – Octavia
73: The Living Tombstone – Luna (remix)
72: Aviators – Lights
71: Forest Rain – On Our Way
70: Aviators – Friendship (acoustic)

Past the page break you'll find YouTube embeds and a bit of detail about each track.

74: Evening Star – Octavia

Rules 1 (uploaded to YouTube 21 Apr 2013) and 4 (unlisted)
Yet another instrumental by the talented Marcus Warner here. "Dwell on the beauty of life. Watch the stars, and see yourself running with them" is the quote he headlined the video description with, and the whole piece is intended to sound like music for the corresponding scene in a movie. To me it summons up well the image in the thumbnail, that of Tavi playing her cello under a starlit sky. Like other Evening Star tracks, it's atmospheric and evocative. As with several others by him, there's a newer, longer and more complex version on the artist's Reprise EP, though the one embedded here is the original. Pick it up in HQ for £1 on Marcus Warner's Bandcamp.

73: The Living Tombstone – Luna (remix)

Rule 1: uploaded to YouTube 25 Apr 2013
Eurobeat Brony's "Luna" was one of the earliest smash hits of the fandom, and indeed it featured on my "Sounds of 2011" list. Here, The Living Tombstone gives the song his own interpretation. I'm not really sure it works that well, as the two styles are very different and seem to be a little bit awkward in each other's company. Of course, we all know that it did work for "Discord", but maybe lightning didn't strike twice here. You can download this track on the Tombstone Remixes album – see the Mega link in the video description.

72: Aviators (ft. Feather) – Lights

Rule 1: uploaded to YouTube 20 Jan 2013
Another post, another Aviators song – but this one is a little bit different. It's more of a pop-rock ballad than Aviators' more usual (at this date) synthiness, and so it may well surprise you if you haven't heard it before. Aviators duets on vocals with Feather, and her presence on a track is very rarely a bad thing. This one really could be played on commercial radio without anyone raising an eyebrow – even though it was inspired by the Spitfire/Soarin' ship pairing! (Sure, the word "hand" is in the lyrics, but then so is the word "wings".) Want it in HD? It'll set you back 99 cents on Aviators' Bandcamp.

71: Forest Rain – On Our Way

Rule 1: uploaded to YouTube 11 Aug 2013
Ah, now then, there's quite a story behind this Forest Rain track. As its video thumbnail suggests, it was written for the feature-length fan animation Journey of the Spark. What? You've never seen it? That's because nobody has, beyond a few bits and pieces such as the animatic for this very song. The film got a Hasbro C&D, the creator suffered health issues, etc. (This TV Tropes page has a brief summary.) However, the song survives to this day, and fortunately it's one that doesn't need the movie to support it. The lyrics explain enough of what's going on for it to make sense, and "the Mane Six go on a journey" is straightforward enough anyway. I actually really like this song's upbeat cheeriness, though I'd have preferred Fluttershy to be a little less one-dimensionally scaredy-pony. There's a 320k MP3 available via the video description.

70: Aviators – Friendship (acoustic)

Rule 1: uploaded to YouTube 13 Jul 2013
The second Aviators song of today's selection. "Friendship" is of course regarded as one of the great classics of the MLP fandom's music output, and its original electric version ranked quite highly in the 2012 list. Here, he really goes to town on the emotional hit of the song, which is after all about a strained and perhaps broken friendship that may just be able to be saved. There is in fact an extended version, though I'm not sure the extra two minutes add that much. In any case, it only seems to be available on a physical CD, and if you're outside the US that ain't a cheap option. However, you can buy the version you see here for $1 on Aviators' Bandcamp.