Stuck In My Skull 532 -- "Until It's Gone"

Song: "Until It's Gone" || Artist: Linkin Park || http://youtu.be/oM-XJD4J36U ||

Comments: Good morning, everyone! Today's entry is coming at you a bit earlier than planned, but I'll try to make it worth the wait. Without further ado, let's jump right in.
I've been a massive Linkin Park fan for a long, long time. I've been enjoying this band since before Minutes to Midnight was released in 2007. I've enjoyed each of their albums for what they were, and enjoyed hearing their sound change over the years. Listening to Hybrid Theory and Living Things, you would hardly think that they were the same band. Their current album -- The Hunting Party -- is yet again something completely different. They've stepped back from the electronic feel of Living Things and by their own words tried to make a rock album. This is neatly highlighted by the minimal (or perhaps even absence of an) appearance by Mike Shinoda (the rap vocalist of the group) in this track. This album also makes heavy use of guest artists, whose performance I'm torn on in their first single.
While it's a definite step back from Living Things and subtly different from the bands' sound in previous albums, there is no doubt in my mind that "Until It's Gone" is vintage Linkin Park. It's got just enough synth to call to mind previous Linkin Park tracks without sounding like a repeat, and builds itself into an excellent, somewhat-dark rock song. It's excellent. Give it a listen!

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Stuck In My Skull 531 -- Unrelease Zedd Track "Scorpion Move" and Krewella Vocal Edit (Downloads inside!)

Song: "Scorpion Move" || Artist: Zedd || Vocal Edit Artist: Krewella || Original: https://soundcloud.com/dubstep/scorpion-move-by-zedd || Vocal Edit: https://soundcloud.com/krewella-media-music/scorpion-move-zedd-krewella ||

Comments: Hello and happy Friday everyone! Hopefully you've all had a lovely week, I know mine has been a little crazy. I'm still on a dubstep kick, but I found out last night that Linkin Park dropped a new album while I wasn't paying attention last month, so my dubstep kick will be coming to an end shortly. Check back next week and I'll dish the dirt on the new album.

To wrap up this week, let's jump into it with some excellent music. Today's track is one that I've been holding onto for far too long. To put a scale on just how long I've had this song in reserve, it came out on Krewella's Troll Mix Volume 2 (hour long amazing mix, free download here), and Krewella just released Troll Mix Volume 13 a month ago. Back on Troll Mix Volume 2, they dropped an unreleased track by Zedd called "Scorpion Move" (top soundcloud player, free download). It's an amazing track, full of all the right synths and wubs. It's really, really great, and it's going straight to my workout playlist. I'm shocked I didn't think to look this up before now.

Not satisfied with just dropping an unreleased track by another major artist, Krewella did us one better, and dropped their own vocal edit. Oh man, is this edit something else. I'm insanely sad that this isn't a free download as well, but I'll get over it for the sake of how good this song is. Krewella's vocals and edits are the perfect accompaniment to Zedd's fantastic instrumentals, and come together to make a truly exceptional track. Give this a try, be sure to download the original Zedd track, and check out the Troll Mix that I linked while you're at it -- all of these are amazing, and you won't be disappointed. Be sure to like Stuck In My kull on Facebook, and I'll see you next week!

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Stuck In My Skull 530 -- "Faded" [Free Download!] and an update!

Song: "Faded" || Artist: Mt. Eden || https://soundcloud.com/mtedenofficial/faded ||


Comments: Hello everyone! I was originally going to write this entry on Mt. Eden's "Silence" remix, before realizing that I'd covered that song back in Entry 432, which I've updated with a download link. Lately I've been on a pretty massive dubstep kick. For me, that means I'll create a new playlist in my media player of choice (currently Foobar2000 or Clementine on Windows, and Clementine on Linux -- what can I say? I like opensource) and drag all of the artists I think of as 'dubstep' from my library into the playlist. Among those artists is Mt. Eden. Every time I drag them into a playlist, I'm pleasantly surprised when a drum and bass song slips in -- "Faded." Somehow, I never remember that Mt. Eden does more than just dubstep. And that's a shame, because they do it well. Both this song and it's later "2009" version are excellent tracks, full to the brim with adrenaline. Seriously, if you have a work out or a pump up playlist, this belongs in it. And best of all, like most of Mt. Eden's tracks from their days before signing to Ultra, both versions are free downloads! Enjoy!

Make sure to like us on Facebook, and let me know what you think of me posting so many Soundcloud/download links!

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Stuck In My Skull 529 -- "Rather Be"

Song: "Rather Be" || Artist: Clean Bandit feat. Jess Glynne || http://youtu.be/m-M1AtrxztU ||

Comments: Hello and happy Friday everyone! Let's talk about Clean Bandit. I heard this song on the radio not long ago, and knew the moment I heard it that this was a fresh sound that I was absolutely in love with, and I absolutely had to look this song up. After I did, I spent multiple hours listening to a playlist of Clean Bandit on repeat, and I had really, really hard time picking which song I wanted to use for today. In the end it was a toss-up between this track and "Mozart's House." "Rather Be" won, but just barely, and both songs are excellent. For that matter, I've yet to encounter a Clean Bandit song I haven't liked, but I'll restrict my focus to this track for the sake of writing this entry. As of the time of writing, this song has been on Billboard's Hot 100 chart for five weeks, and is sitting at #32 after making a pretty huge jump up from #51. At the risk of sounding like a pop station, I really think this could be the song of the summer. It's a light, refreshing track with an addictively-funky sound, and it's nothing but awesome. The British electronic music quarter has put together a truly amazing track with some of the best instrumentation I've heard lately, mixing dance-inspired rhythms with classical strings and a floating, whimsical keyboard that really makes the track click. Fellow Brit Jess Glynne brings the song together with beautiful, soulful vocals. Honestly, this is one of the best songs I've heard in awhile, and I can't get enough. If you haven't heard it, check it out! If you have heard it, listen again, and enjoy! Have a good weekend!

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Stuck In My Skull 528 -- "Flute (Original Mix)"

Song: "Flute (Original Mix)" || Artist: New World Sound and Thomas Newson || http://youtu.be/e-U1lj57pv8 ||

Comments: Hello and happy Monday everyone. Today's song is one of those who are really completely encapsulated by their title. This amazing track is exactly what you might guess based on its name -- a song that's really defined  by a flute. In this case, it's an excellent electronic track. Really, there's not much that I can say about it. It's catchy and the instrumentation is masterful, and yes, anchored by a flute. Check it out!

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Stuck In My Skull 527 -- "Proxy" FREE DOWNLOAD

Song: "Proxy (Original Mix)" || Artist: Martin Garrix || https://soundcloud.com/martingarrix/proxy-original-mix ||


Comments: Good morning and happy Wednesday, everyone! Even though I ended Free Music Week, I'm always on the lookout for great free music, and boy have I got a great one for you today! Martin Garrix is one of the hottest artists in the electronic music scene right now, riding his tracks like "Animals" and "Wizard" all the way to the top of the charts and into your ears. In appreciation of his fans, Mr. Garrix has made this track available as a free download from his Soundcloud. This song is excellent. "Proxy" has all of the brilliance of the more popular Martin Garrix songs, but to my ears sounds a little more house and hardstyle than the trap-twinged hit "Animals." But forget about me trying to label this song, go give it a listen. I think you'll love it.

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Stuck In My Skull 526 -- "Engraved Within"

Song: "Engraved Within" || Artist: Serentity || http://youtu.be/M2YCOSSLhK4 ||

Comments: Good morning! I know many of you -- myself included -- might be dragging on this Monday morning, so let's get the lead out together with this song. I found this track last week while listening to my metal station on Pandora. For the record, this is one of my oldest stations on that sight, spanning back multiple years -- at least three, I think. To put things in perspective, this station started not just before they gave unlimited usage back to free listeners, but before they instated the 40 hour cap in the first place. playlist.com was a thing when I made this station. What I'm trying to say is, it's old, and I've put an obscene amount of work into coercing the algorithm to play just the sort of symphonic metal I like. Pandora is built to randomly throw some songs into the rotation that are farther from the beaten path of any given channel in order to add diversity, and you can generally tell when that happens: You'll be listening without a care and suddenly, "Hello, this song is completely different." This is not an instance of that randomness, this fit perfectly into my station. How, then, have I never heard of Serenity before last week? I'll omit my very long discourse on why I think human DJs beat algorithms (you can see most of it in the guest entry I wrote about web radio for Melodic Music Project a bazillion years ago here). The point is, Pandora, why did you take so long to tell me about this band?! This song is excellent. It's got great vocals that remind me strongly of Seventh Wonder. Its instrumentation is nearly as strong as Epica's. As the youtube comments on this song point out, Serenity fills the same amazing niche as other greats like Dream Theatre, Symphony X, and Kamelot. Pandora, why did you take so long to play this? Go and listen to this, dear readers. If you like my taste in metal, you won't be disappointed.

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