Off we go again with my look at Everfree Radio's fan-voted chart. To clarify for those who don't already know: this is what people thought in 2013, not their views now on what was best from that year. The usual reminder of my inclusion criteria first:
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
Now for this edition's list. I'm happy to say that there's no skipping required this time around, so all five tracks are present and correct.
54: EileMonty, Sim Gretina and Copper – Moving On (cover)
53: PrinceWhateverer ft. Scrambles, ShadyVox and AAR – Bullies and Best Friends
52: ponyphonic – Twilight's Journey
51: PsychGoth ft. Nowacking and MysteriousBronie – Spirit of Fire
50: 4everfreebrony – Three's a Team
Beyond the page break shalt thou find YouTube videos of the featured songs and mine own waffling. Verily.
Rule 1: re-uploaded to YouTube 14 Mar 2017
After a period of absence, this reappeared on the EileMontySingz YT account in 2017. A cover of Twenty Ten's classic, one of the best known songs of its kind, with rock and rap lyrics alternating, EileMonty does a great job singing. It also features Sim Gretina's instrumentals. Copper, whose YT I can't find, is the rapper. There's not a huge amount of outright Pony content here, other than the mention of "Rainbow Dash in your hand" and a few lyrics like "sparkle in your eye", but it's all so damn catchy that it's irresistible. I think I may slightly prefer the original, but this cover is slick and professional. There doesn't seem to be a HQ download, sadly.
Rules 1 (uploaded to YouTube 9 Jun 2013) and 3 (unlisted)
Another long-standing stalwart of brony music now: PrinceWhateverer. This song was written for Rainbow & Rooted's oddly-titled Four's Fall Down album, and unsurprisingly it's fast-paced rock. The subject is Babs Seed, and indeed the canon "Babs Seed" song makes an appearance – as does "Smile". I don't actually know who Scrambles and AAR are, I'm ashamed to admit, but ShadyVox is familiar to me from the likes of "Don't Mine at Night". If you want this song in HQ, spend $1 on the Four's Fall Down album on Rainbow & Rooted's Bandcamp.
Rule 1: uploaded to YouTube 23 Jun 2013
Pretty much anything by ponyphonic is worthwhile, but this is perhaps one of their lesser known songs. This was written as a response to Twilight's ascension, looking at how far she's come since that first arrival in Ponyville. Christina Larson (ponyphonic's sister) does a very fine job with the lead vocals, the YT video was put together by Erik Larson (another brother) and in fact the song was written by their dad! A real family effort. I really am surprised it's so little heard these days, and I think it's highly underrated. Want it in HQ? It's $1 on ponyphonic's Bandcamp.
Rule 1: uploaded to YouTube 30 Jul 2013
PsychGoth later became LaRaikaa, but it's the older name that will always be attached to this high-energy, high-tempo song about Spitfire. It's all about how she used her "spirit of fire" to respond to fillyhood taunts about her feebleness and end up captain of the Wonderbolts. Vocal duties are shared by Nowacking – hey, he's not voicing Vinyl for once! – and MysteriousBronie (now apparently known as WeaselFace). There's a really rather good guitar solo in here as well, and though the song feels a tad rough-edged in places that probably fits the message it's sending quite well. For HQ goodness, there's a four-track single for $3 on LaRiakaa's Bandcamp.
Rule 1: uploaded to YouTube 21 May 2013
A Cutie Mark Crusaders song from 4everfreebrony, yay! In fact, this was one of the first songs he ever posted to YouTube all those years ago. It's a heartfelt song about the closeness that crusading has brought to the CMC and how they'll never give up despite (in 2013!) having had no success at getting their marks. It has a fairly light level of instrumentation that sets it apart from some of the louder tracks before it this edition. There's a 2017 re-record that's more accomplished (especially vocally) and is probably a better choice if you just want the best version of the song, but as is my usual practice it's the 2013 original that's embedded above. There's an MP3 download linked from the video description, but sadly it's only 160 kbps.
Quite a few songs I remember yet never really liked, the exception being Everfree's at the end there. :)
ReplyDeleteIf there's anything these posts are great for, it's keeping up with the constant name changes artists have gone through over the years. :D
The PrinceWhateverer track was a real pain for that, as he'd mentioned it was a Balloon Party song. It took a bit of digging to discover Four's Fall Down, though I remembered the odd name when I finally did find it. :)
Deletere: the album title, I'm not sure why it's called that either. I know most Balloon Party albums were named for Knife Party albums, because obviously. But that one? No idea.
DeleteI had absolutely no idea that Knife Party even existed for years after I knew about Balloon Party... :D
DeleteRegarding "Four's Fall Down", according to an ancient EQD post I found (June 8, 2013), Rainbow & Rooted is a reference to the band Camo & Krooked and the album title comes from their song "All Fall Down".
DeleteAll this time, I never knew that! :O
DeleteStill doesn't explain why "Four's", though...