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.
Last week, I had to skip one of the five tracks that made the chart. We're not quite at the point just yet where Rule 3 will apply across the board, but it doesn't matter this time: a full five tracks today!
20: SlyphStorm ft. 4EverfreeBrony & Midnight Melody – Soldiers of the Night
19: PrinceWhateverer – Your Own Sky
18: Silva Hound ft. Odyssey Eurobeat – Come Alive
17: MandoPony & MegabyteBrony – Spitfire (Give It All You Got)
16: ponyphonic – Applejack
Starting off today with a song that not only dates from the previous year, but charted highly then as well. This song in praise of Luna was actually inspired by Forest Rain's "Raise the Sun" from back in 2012. As a Celestia fan I think her song has been somewhat unfairly neglected, but I can't deny that "Soldiers of the Night" makes for really, really good listening. SlyphStorm gave us something memorable and exciting here, with the expectedly great guitar and voice work from 4EverfreeBrony and bass from Midnight Melody. Although this track is really quite long (6:26) it doesn't outstay its welcome. This is just great, slick and catchy and driving and thrilling. You can pick it up in HQ for $1 on SlyphStorm's Bandcamp.
Rule 1: uploaded to YouTube 25 Jun 2015
Warning first: the above video contains flashing images. Now: I wonder sometimes how many songs PrinceWhateverer has actually made for the My Little Pony fandom. It's got to be in three figures by now, surely? "Your Own Sky" is at the more metal end of his output, although at times the song does drop back to hard rock rather than screaming. Since I'm not a massive fan of the latter, this isn't a track that I listen to much at all. It's about Princess Celestia and her sadness and conflict about having to banish her own sister in the Moon for a thousand years. As with many of Prince's songs, there's an updated version from 2022, but the one embedded above is the original. Grab it for £1 from PrinceWhateverer's Bandcamp, and/or get the 2022 update for the same price.
Now here's a song a lot of you will know! Whether it's due to its popularity as a track during conventions or simply its enormous popularity, fandom musical giants Silva Hound and Odyssey Eurobeat created a real monster here. An absolute banger, as I believe da yoof of today would put it. I'm not usually much of a one for club-style music, but this one just gets under your skin (coat, fur, scales, whatever). An extremely well done drop, too. The track was used for a very popular BronyDanceParty PMV (one of, if not the last big BDP releases) and it's been remixed plenty of times. But this is where it all began! You can get it for $1.49 from Silva Hound's Bandcamp.
This one certainly hasn't stayed popular in the way "Come Alive" has and, let's face it, a lot of that probably has to do with it being a MandoPony track rather than anything to do with the actual music. After all, this collab with MegabyteBrony was very popular a decade ago and is a really, really well done classic rock song about – well, guess who? When the number was released in 2014, Rainbow Dash was still a long way from being a fully-fledged Wonderbolt, and so this song very much emphasises Spitfire's superiority and how she's "the best around". Perhaps unsurprisingly, it's not on Bandcamp nowadays, but even the download links in the video description are gone. The best I can do is this third-party Soundcloud upload.
In shock news to end this edition, ponyphonic provides a fantastic piece of music. As you'd probably expect from a song about AJ, this is very much a country number, with well judged lyrics and some truly wonderful piano work. To my surprise, this song has under a quarter of a million views on YouTube, which given the sheer quality on display here really isn't an awful lot. Musically excellent and thematically fitting, it's just superbly listenable. It's even available as a name-your-price download on ponyphonic's Bandcamp – so really, what are you waiting for? Even if Applejack isn't your personal Best Pony, this is a song for the ages.
I agree that Raise the Sun is better, but Soldiers of the Night still slaps and a half :D
ReplyDeletemy favorite version of Come Alive is the remix by Lavender, it would seem :) and the one song I like about Spitfire is actually be ElectroKaplosion, wonder if that one's been featured previously