Sounds of 2014: Nos. 5 to 1

That's right, everyone! The Equestria Trot 100 chart for 2014 reaches the summit today. We're going to be looking at the five tracks which garnered the most votes (or however this chart decided rankings; I'm not sure) ten years ago. Although this bit isn't strictly necessary this time as I'll explain in a moment, here are the usual criteria for inclusion:

Rule 1: Still available in the same or (1b) similar form direct from the/an original 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. 

Except that those criteria do not apply this one time. Look, if your song gets into the top five for an entire year, it's famous. Therefore, all these tracks are considered to qualify for inclusion under Rule 3 even if they don't fulfil any of the other requirements. As it happens, though, they all meet Rule 1 anyway, so this doesn't arise.

5: BlackGryph0n & Baasik – Academy
4: AcoustiMandoBrony – Laughter
3: Sim Gretina – Entropy (remix)
2: AnimatedJames – Brony Polka
1: The Living Tombstone – Stop the Bats (remix)

Jump break now, at least for those of you on computers. After that, it's time for the final countdown! (Well, until "Sounds of 2015", anyway...)

5: BlackGryph0n & Baasik – Academy

 

Rule 1: uploaded to YouTube 25 May 2014
Well, what do you know, it's BlackGryph0n and Baasik with a song from IMmortal. Who'd have seen that coming, eh? The Academy in the title is of course the Wonderbolts version, although the song was released just after Nate (Baasik, Black Gryph0n's brother) graduated from the US Naval Academy. There's therefore a double meaning to this track. After a highly dubsteppy intro that I'm not especially keen on, we get a pretty nice electrodancepop (or whatever; I'm not great with genres!) track that fits its subject(s) decently. As per usual with IMmortal tracks, this one is available in HQ for 99¢ from Black Gryph0n's Bandcamp.

 

4: AcoustiMandoBrony – Laughter

Rule 1: uploaded to YouTube 16 Feb 2014
AcoustiMandoBrony was of course the long-lived and successful collaboration between Acoustic Brony and MandoPony. Among their most popular tracks were four dealing with Mane Sixers, and "Laughter" is unsurprisingly the song for Pinkie Pie. It's not really my favourite of these songs, with a slightly awkward meeting of Acoustic Brony's signature rock sound and the light-hearted bloopiness of Pinkie's theme – with obvious parts of her canon "Smile Song" in there as well. Fast-forward to 2022 and Re:Make, as Acoustic Brony were rebranded, released a revised version as part of the Elements EP. That removes MandoPony and the show music and adds more assured production. In truth, it's a better song, but in 2014 the version I embed here was what everyone knew. The 2022 update is available for £1.50 on Re:Make's Bandcamp. The best I can do for this original is a 320k MP3 in the video description.

3: Sim Gretina – Entropy (remix)

Rule 1: uploaded to YouTube 19 Mar 2014
The original of Awkward Marina's second most popular song (after the inevitable "Anthropology") appeared in January 2014, but it's the Sim Gretina remix from a few months later that hit the heights in the Trot 100 chart. It's surprisingly short at well under three minutes, but the essential Discord-ness of the original comes through nicely. Sim Gretina was unsure about releasing it according to a note in the YT comments, but though I think I slightly prefer the original and don't think this is one of SG's greatest remixes, it certainly has a strong energy about it. Sadly, with Sim Gretina having blanked out their Bandcamp account, there's no official HQ version of this, though you can get Awkward Marina's 2019 revamp (but not the original, I'm afraid) for $1.50 on her Bandcamp.

2: AnimatedJames – Brony Polka

Rule 1: uploaded to YouTube 11 Jan 2014
It's many years since AnimatedJames announced he was calling a halt to his YouTube uploading in order to concentrate on improving his health. He's almost certainly best remembered in the MLP fandom for this "Weird Al" Yankovic-style polka number, a real tour de force which combines pretty much all the top brony tracks from the first few years of the fandom – most of which have remained very popular in themselves, showing AnimatedJames' good musical judgement! The longest track in this Top 100, running to over nine minutes, but it's so much fun that it's hard to feel unhappy about that. It's also well worth watching Viva Reverie's animation. You can grab the HQ version for just a buck on AnimatedJames' Bandcamp – and there's even a list there of the songs featured!

 

1: The Living Tombstone – Stop the Bats (remix)

 

Rule 1: Uploaded to YouTube 19 Feb 2014
Okay, did you see this coming as 2014's number one track? Because I did not. The Living Tombstone isn't an obscure musician, sure, but this? A remix of an admittedly very popular show song that starts out using a minute-long song by Tim & Eric, a couple Adult Swim guys I've never heard of called, er, "I Sit Down When I Pee". Not exactly what I was expecting or indeed hoping for at this point in proceedings, but I can only report what the chart says. The actual "Stop the Bats" remix is good as you'd expect, but the Tim & Eric vocals continue occasionally throughout. Suffice to say I hate this song. To my immense relief, two versions are available in the YouTube description: this one, and an official "No Pee" version. That one's actually catchy and enjoyable. The one embedded here, though, is the original so be warned if you're not listening in private!

Well, not the best way to end "Sounds of 2014", and I admit to being disappointed something so childish and crass got number one instead of, well, anything else. "Brony Polka" would have been a great way to round it off. What I will say, though, is that for the most part I've enjoyed writing up this series. There will be a "Sounds of 2015" in due course, so stay tuned!