Sounds of 2013: Nos. 44 to 40

It's Everfree Radio Top 100 time again! These, of course, are the tracks that listeners at the time rated as their favourites of 2013. When deciding whether to include a song, I take account of the following four criteria:

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 we go with this week's list. Of the five songs I wanted to talk about this time, I can happily feature all five!

44: Synthis – Broken Wings
43: Sim Gretina feat. EileMonty – Again
42: donglekumquat – Hoofdachest
41: The Living Tombstone, EileMonty and Sim Gretina – Wings
40: Sim Gretina feat. Nowacking – When the Bass Drops

As always, come past the break for YouTube embeds of the songs featured here and my usual rambling words about them.

44: Synthis – Broken Wings

Rule 1: uploaded to YouTube 10 Jul 2013
Although he's slightly updated his name since (to Sam Synthis) there's no real surprise when an artist called something like this produces a very synthy song! The creator says, "I'll let you come up with your own story for this one," but I'd assume it was the tale of an out-of-the-mainstream pegasus, perhaps one who's been damaged by something in their past but is now away from it all. I don't know, really. The song is rather repetitive, but it works very nicely as a background track when you're doing something that doesn't need total concentration. There's a 320k MP3 available via a Google Drive(!) link in the video description. Alternatively, get it in WAV and FLAC as part of the name-your-price Waves EP on Synthis's Bandcamp.

43: Sim Gretina feat. EileMonty – Again

Rule 1: uploaded to YouTube 13 Jun 2013

A collaboration between Sim Gretina and EileMonty should be worth listening to, you might think. And you would be correct! It's a love ballad, sung by an earth pony mare to the pegasus stallion she adores, hoping he would say "those three magical words" to her. EileMonty's vocals are as good as ever, while Sim Gretina in a slightly different mode to the usual bouncy remixes also displays excellent judgement. Unfortunately Sim Gretina's Bandcamp, linked from the video description, appears to be no more.

42: donglekumquat – Hoofdachest

Rules 1 (uploaded to YouTube 3 May 2013) and 4 (unlisted)

This donglekumquat classic is officially described as "A song about being a brony, and stuff." There isn't much more you can say about it than that, really, except that it's a very catchy song with an even catchier repeating instrumental theme – one that was apparently later used by the creator as videogame music! The song is reminiscent of some very early fandom tracks in that it is very blatantly about MLP. You couldn't possibly play this and pretend it was a mainstream song as you can with some more recent efforts. And you know what? I'm glad that's the case. As with the last track, though, the Bandcamp link given no longer works.

41: The Living Tombstone, EileMonty and Sim Gretina – Wings

Rule 1: uploaded to YouTube 24 Feb 2013

A bit of a fandom supergroup here, with The Living Tombstone being joined by Sim Gretina, with EileMonty on vocal duties. (Tombstone also sings, as much of this song is a duet.) From context, I think this is a song about Twilight, in which she struggles to understand her new winged status and laments the fact that it has taken her far away from her friends. It's an energetic song, but with an edge of unhappiness too. Note the upload date: this was released just eight days after "Magical Mystery Cure" went out. For higher-than-YouTube quality, check out the Mediafire download link in the video description.

40: Sim Gretina feat. Nowacking – When the Bass Drops

Rule 1: uploaded to YouTube 30 Sep 2013

Here's the third track this time to feature Sim Gretina! This is a piece sung by Vinyl Scratch, who is of course voiced by Nowacking. He does the usual excellent job, too. It's the story of the conflict in the DJ's mind between her love of what she does and the fact that she is the only one in the venue who can't actually get out there and dance. Vinyl is asking Pinkie Pie to change the track for her. As before, Sim Gretina's Bandcamp is no more, so the link given in the video description is of no use now.