Sounds of 2013, nos. 6 to 4

It's getting very near the end, as the Beatles once sang. Only three more editions of "Sounds of 2013" remain, including this one. I'll be covering three songs today, two next time, and the track voted number one will get a post of its own. As usual, here are the criteria used to determine inclusion or otherwise:

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

The three songs included today are:

06: YourEnigma – My Roommate is a 'Bassist'
05: Ponky & Eccentrifuge – Bright Eyes (A Wonky Anthem)
04: EileMonty – I Am Octavia

As ever, if you want YouTube embeds and waffling from me, you'll find those after the page break. If not, I'm sure you've got more interesting things to do! But for those who do want them, read on.

06: YourEnigma – My Roommate is a 'Bassist'

Rule 1: uploaded to YouTube 13 Aug 2013

This isn't the first time YourEnigma has been featured here, and indeed they're still active on YouTube, albeit not with Pony songs for the last few years. This track seems to have lost an awful lot of fame since its release, but its no. 6 spot here shows just how popular it was. In the way it mixes Octavia's melodies with Vinyl's wubs, it might be said to anticipate that scene in "Slice of Life". A large part of the song is a rather nice remix of "Love is in Bloom", though there's also a (fairly slight) narrative wrapper with Tavi starting off irritated by Vinyl's intrusive noise and ending up realising the two can work in harmony. The whole thing does work, I feel, and maybe it's time this got a few more listens again. Get the song in HQ for $1 on YourEnigma's Bandcamp.

05: Ponky & Eccentrifuge – Bright Eyes (A Wonky Anthem)

Rule 1: uploaded to YouTube 30 Jan 2013

Another song that was once super-famous but has perhaps faded a little in popularity in the near eight years since its release. Eccentrifuge later became known as LookOutLondon, though the account has been entirely dormant for five years now. PonkyPiano takes care of the cheerful, melodic piano lines. This is very much a Derpy tribute song, which may be part of the reason behind its stellar popularity in 2013. When this track was released we were in late S3, a time when Derpy was almost entirely absent from the show and we didn't know if she'd ever return. I quite like the vocals to this, even if a few of the rhymes are a bit of a stretch, "apples/hatful/grapple", for example. I don't think the short rap section is particularly successful, but I can overlook that as it's just so cheerful a song. The HQ track can be yours for whatever you want to pay on Eccentrifuge's Bandcamp.

04: EileMonty – I Am Octavia

Rules 3 (way too famous to skip) and 1b (available on EileMonty's Soundcloud)

EileMonty's smash hit, and this song is still as famous today as it was back in 2013. She's moved this song in and out of public visibility several times over the years, for whatever reason, but no way was I going to skip it! Most people probably know it best from the TehJadeh animation, with Nowacking voicing Vinyl, but the one embedded above is just the song. It's a brilliant, wonderfully sung parody of David Guetta's "Titanium" – a song that featured Sia years before she became an MLP star! In EileMonty's version, Octavia sings about her difficult relationship with Vinyl, and I defy anyone not to get just a little bit emotional, at least if they're in a receptive mood to start with. I have a history with this song myself, as it happens: back in 2013, I attended BUCK but accidentally missed EileMonty singing this song. For five long years I thought I'd never get another chance... until 2018, when she performed at UK PonyCon and sang it again. I don't mind saying I cried. One of my most memorable moments in this fandom. Anyway, no HQ version of this performance that I know of, I'm afraid. But it's still brilliant.