Monday 31 August 2020

Sounds of 2013, Nos. 29 to 25

Today we're returning to Everfree Radio's Top 100 tracks of 2013, as voted for by fans at the time. The usual reminder of the criteria I use to decide whether a track is featured:

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

Here are this week's five songs. Again, there are no skips this week!

29: Sherclop Pones – It'll Be OK
28: The Living Tombstone – Rainbow Factory (remix)
27: FIMFlamPhilosophy – Sinking Ships
26: Awkward Marina – Sombra's Door
25: Coconeru and Steven, A.D. – Tavi and Scratch (A Tropical Octav3)

After the break, we'll get right on with the YouTube embeds and semi-random wibblings that you surely expect from me by now.


Rule 1: uploaded to YouTube 23 Feb 2013
Ah yes, this one. Without question the catchiest song about possibly-incest ever released, and a song generally seen as a highlight of the Friendship is Witchcraft abridged series. I've listed it here as a Sherclop Pones track, as that's the account it's uploaded on, but more exactly the music is by Toastwaffle and Griffin Lewis, while vocals are provided by Jenny Nicholson and Wild Card. The whole song is, as I said, amazingly catchy, and it only gets better when you listen to it along with watching its brilliant accompanying PMV/animation from the relevant FiW episode. There's a 320k MP3 download link in the video description. It's not creepy.


Rule 1: uploaded to YouTube 8 May 2013
Here's The Living Tombstone with his characteristically electronic and quite heavy remix of WoodenToaster's classic from way back in August 2011. Since the original song is about a horrifying dystopia where ponies are ground up to make rainbows, though, Tombstone's added speed and urgency doesn't perhaps give as much extra intensity as you might be expecting. I do like the minor-key chimes that punctuate a substantial part of this remix, which are suitably unsettling. The sudden ending may well divide opinions, though; I'm not entirely keen on it. The song is available as part of the Tombstone Remixes collection, which can be downloaded via a Mega link in the video description.

27: FIMFlamPhilosophy – Sinking Ships

Rule 1: original uploaded to YouTube 1 Aug 2013
These days the artist is known as Dawn Somewhere, but they weren't in 2013. This song doesn't make a lick of sense if you listen to it without the accompanying video – though it doesn't make much more sense even with it! Suffice to say that the main singer is the Rainbow Dash of the Rainbow Dash Presents series, which is itself a spin-off of the Mentally Advanced Series abridged series. I used "series" a lot there, I know. As a song I'm not that fond of this, as I find Rainbow's voice pretty unappealing – though of course that's part of the joke. If you like it, though, there's an MP3 download linked from the video description.


Rule 1: uploaded to YouTube 8 Jun 2013
Awkward Marina is best known in this fandom for "Anthropology", but she actually wrote quite a few other MLP songs (and is still active today, albeit in other areas). "Sombra's Door" is an immensely catchy song of what I call the "bleepy bloopy" electronic sort, and one of the few that have been made about King Sombra. Obviously his S9 comeback wasn't a thing when this was made, but that doesn't matter. We're in the world of the S3 premiere, and specifically the enchanted door that shows characters their worst nightmares – in Twilight's case, being shunned by Princess Celestia. It's good stuff, even surviving a Linkin Park reference. :P The SoundCloud download link is dead, though, I'm afraid.


Rules 1 (uploaded to YouTube 19 Feb 2013) and 4 (unlisted)
Okay, this song about Octavia and Vinyl being stranded on a desert island has a slightly complicated history. It started out in 2012 as an instrumental by Coconeru, a version we don't hear that much any more. Why not? Because the following year, Steven, A.D. took the song and ran with it, adding a fast-paced rap that really fits Vinyl's character brilliantly, as long as you can deal with the odd mention of cellphone service! The most popular video is probably Animated James' animation, but James has long since left the fandom. Steven, A.D. himself set his video to private for a while for personal reasons, but it's back (albeit unlisted) now, which is great. You can get an MP3 version from the video description.

4 comments:

  1. I always had to wonder about the "these ponies are shirtless" line in that last one. It's a great song, but that line just makes no sense. XD

    Sombra's Door and Sinking Ships both have excellent covers later on, if I'm not mistaken. :)

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    1. You're half mistaken. ;) "Sombra's Door" doesn't have any other versions in this Top 100. "Sinking Ships" does.

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    2. I mean in later years. :P These top 100s are always a surprise to me.

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  2. You can tell we're getting closer to the end of the list. Some quite big names here.

    I can't say I'm really a fan of 'Sinking Ships' as a song either. But hey ho.

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