This past month has seen a lot of movies and music! If you’d like to check out what I’ve been watching in August, I’ve added a little series on my blog’s Facebook page that lists the ones I’ve seen lately.
As for the music part, August was just strange, I feel like that’s the best way to describe it. I started on listening to rap music for the majority of the month, but towards the end I really craved my heavy metal again. So, as much as I’ve enjoyed getting back into hip hop again, I have really missed music by Five Finger Death Punch, Xandria and In This Moment a lot.
Here is a top 10 of the song I’ve been loving in August!
1, 2, 3 by Sofia Reyes featuring Jason Derulo and De La Ghetto
Heart Attack by Demi Lovato
In My Feelings by Drake
Welcome To The Party by Diplo featuring French Montana, Lil Pump, Zhavia
Choas and Earthquakes by Nonpoint
Mantra by Bring Me The Horizon
Big Bank by YG featuring 2 Chainz, Big Sean and Nicki Minaj
Back To You by Selena Gomez
What I Need by Hayley Kiyoko and Kehlani
The beginning of the month saw me really trying to get back to my normal routine. I managed to get two reviews up in one week, and I had plans to work on stuff last week, but I still don’t want to push myself too much.
Last Monday, I literally woke up telling myself that I was going to sit up and actually do something with my time, and I did pre-write a possible blog post, and the same happened the next day and honestly I think I should thank little Nolan for snapping me out of my slump because he made me get up and entertain him. I tried quoting The Lion King, he worked for only so long that we just had to switch to Moana and that put him to sleep. I have yet to see it all the way through, but I really adore Pua and HeiHei. Blondie and Brandon need to invest in finding stuffed animals of those two characters.
Here are the reviews I did, if you have yet to check them out!
I am getting things ready to start blogging again full time in September. I can’t wait to share those posts with you again! If you have any interesting ideas for me to write about, please send them my way!
So, I have to say this firstly, I am a big fan of Sean Paul! In my teenage years, I would just listen to his music if I was wanting to dance, like no joke! I am still that way, but my hips ache and pop more frequently than before.
I am very excited to talk about this EP finally! I am very proud of myself, I actually stayed away from listening to it. I like to express what I’ve heard for the first time because I think when I listen to it multiple times before reviewing it, my general thoughts will change with each play. However, when it comes to dancehall or EDM music in general, my thoughts rarely change – I usually like it or I don’t. That’s just how I roll sometimes.
So, we’re going to get into this right now and hopefully you like it.
We start off with “Naked Truth” that has Jhene Aiko, and it’s very light, definitely not exactly what I was expecting. I usually prefer heavier songs to begin an album or in this case EP, but I like the balance between Sean and Jhene’s dynamic vocals. What I thought was interesting though was since Sean is originally based in Jamaica, why does this sounds more bollywood to me, especially the drum beats. I’m not saying I didn’t like it or anything, it was just the first thing that popped into my head. Second is “Bad Love” with Ellie Goulding, and I really miss Ellie! This is also a mild song too, but it still has a nice groove. It’s not overwhelming and works really well with Ellie’s soft voice. I had a hard time not dancing to this, so we’ll say it’s a winner!
Next we have “Mad Love” and it features both David Guetta and Becky G. After hearing the two quieter tracks, you have this sucker and I love it to pieces! This is another one that I love dancing to, both day and night. I really like the exotic feel, such a party anthem and Becky G’s vocals are fun and kind of seductive in a way. The only song that doesn’t have a guest artist on board is “Jump On It” and I’m very happy that there is at least one with just Sean, although I would have liked to have more but since this is an EP, maybe if he releases an album later on, I’m sure there will be more like this. Anywho, the song itself is pretty mellow, the beat isn’t crazy but I like it as it was though. It was sexy too!
From the moment I saw that Major Lazer would be on this “Tip Pon It”, I was instantly like, “well, this is going to be awesome” and it definitely didn’t disappoint! It was so much fun and I couldn’t stop dancing when the bass dropped. Although it wasn’t a big drop, the sound itself changed and got bigger and I think that’s why I ultimately ended falling in love with it! Next there’s “Jet Plane Trip” with an artist that I had only heard once and it was a couple of months ago, Stefflon Don. This is actually kind of calming, if that’s the right word to use, it had a nice rhythm but it has more of a slow dance vibe. It was good though!
These are the last three songs on the EP, and we have “Body” featuring Migos. One of the reasons why I really liked this was because it mixed both dancehall and hip hop together. I love that combination, and I actually liked Migos on the track. I’ve always been so-so about them, and I don’t know why so don’t bother asking me that question. Next there’s “Tek Weh Yuh Heart” with Tory Lanez. This is another good one! I thought at first I’d be a little bored with it, but it’s actually pretty great! I think Tory was a good addition to it, his voice is soft and goes with the beat well. The last song is “No Lie” with Dua Lipa, and I have heard this one other time before starting this review and I don’t think I liked it very much. I am turning into a fan of Dua Lipa, but I am also very picky with her songs. This has a great beat and it’s fun. It’s the ideal, light end of summer type of song to me.
I think in general the EP was very good. It had a lot of interesting artists on it, each brought their own sound with them. One thing that I always tend to have issues with is that whenever Sean Paul works with other artists, they seem to be more prominent in the actual song and he just kind of fades into the back, so it’s just the singers and the happy, dance-y beat. That’s why I ended up track #4 a lot more than some of the others.
Have you listened to Sean Paul’s new EP yet? What were some of your favorites and thoughts?
I am back with the fourth installment of Tommee Profitt’s cinematic collection. This album came out on the 4th of July, which I thought was pretty cool! If you’ve been reading my previous reviews of Tommee’s music, you know how freaking obsessed I’ve become, like if I hear a small snippet of any of Tommee’s produced songs on a TV show, I have to rewind that sucker just to hear it again! I automatically get so excited, because I love the fact that this kind of music is being played in almost ways! This batch of songs are no different.
For this album, I did cheat a little and gave myself a listen to like the first five tracks before I literally had to hold myself back from hearing the rest. As far as featured artists on this, you have some of the “originals” who have worked with him in the previous albums, like Sam Tinnesz, Fluerie and Steven Malcolm, but yet we also have some new voices as well! And of course, Tomme has included two instrumentals in different sections too.
We start off with “It’s Got My Name On It” that features Sarah Reeves, who sounds weirdly like both Ruelle and Fleurie with her soft, high-pitched voice. One of the things I like to do whenever I have a new artist like this, I tend to look up information about them on their Facebook music pages, and according to Sarah’s, she may only work on worship music, but this track is definitely not in that theme, which is fine anyways. I think it’s simple, lyric wise, but huge on sound. It also has a mysterious tone to it, thanks to the piano you hear throughout, but it slowly grows once you hit the middle of the song and it just explodes with such force. Second is “Welcome To The Jungle” and Tommeee had shared a trailer of a new show coming to CBS, called A Story To Tell and he mentioned that he “enjoyed creating creepy music” with artist Fleurie. This is so freaking creepy! However, I absolutely love it at the same time. In other words, it’s right up my alley!
We move on to “I Am Legend” with Colton Dixon, and if I remember correctly, he was a contestant on American Idol a few years back, wasn’t he? Whoever he is, he has a nice mellow voice. It works well with the cinematic sound, it’s a very epically (is that even a word?!) song but he has such a pop-rock kind of voice, somehow he made it work. I really enjoyed this! After that, we have “One Eye Open” and Daniella Mason, who has a beautiful voice herself. She tends to do alternative music, and I instantly liked that. I’m very interested in alternative musicians all of a sudden. Anyways, this song doesn’t sound like the rest on the album, and I love the uniqueness about it. It’s almost grime-y, very intense getting towards the end, but her voice is such a sweet kiss to this massive climax.
Fifth track is “Warriors” with my favorite Steven Malcolm, this actually came out as a single, when the NBA finals were about to start. Obviously, Tommee and/or Steven were rooting for the Golden State Warriors! If the song wasn’t influenced by basketball at all, the song is really good anyways! I really love that hard, urban feel to the song! It also kind of has this creepy, I guess SAW movie like type of sound that makes it even better. Next there’s “Incendiary” and this is one of the instrumentals I was telling you about in the beginning, and after the previous song ended, I felt as thought this was good as like a part two. It was still very powerful, really loving the drums. They were fast and exciting! Once it’s done, “Wicked” is next and it features Royal & the Serpent, again I’ve never heard of them so I had to look them up, and they are an indie band. This song is extremely cool as it dabbles in the electronica world. I thought that was really cool, as I was not expecting that at all, but I love musical surprises.
“Feel That Fire” is next and it has Whissell on it, and I love her voice! She reminds me of ZZ Ward, that is if she had a deeper voice. I like the fact that the bluesy sound of her voice is very present in the song, even with the strings commanding as much space too. It just gave me a totally different vibe then the others on the album. Next we have another favorite vocalist of mine, Beacon Light and the song “Takin Over” and this has a sci-fi type of vibe to it when it first starts, but then when he speaks, that hip hop sound creeps in the back and it’s so interesting. I really love ominous sounding music, weirdly enough I have always been this way!
The last four songs, start with “Vagabond” with FJØRA and this is such a pretty tune. It’s so gentle and gives you this adventurous, wanderlust feeling while you’re listening to it. I think FJØRA’s voice was good, it gave the song a softer approach and the fact that Tommee didn’t give it an incredible finish like he’s known to do, because I think it would have been too much with her voice, between the lyrics, her voice and this mellow sound makes it different. Our last instrumental is next, and it’s called “Trail Of Evidence” and it’s absolutely stunning! I really loved the solo cello introduction, at least I’m hoping that’s what I’m hearing! I’m not very good at pointing out certain instruments, I’m sorry! When I first looked at the title, instantly I thought this would be this heavy hitter but it wasn’t. It was fairly soft, but powerful too.
Finally, we move on to “Can’t Hold Us Down” that has Sam Tinnesz in it. This was one of the first new songs I saw on YouTube that made me realize we might be getting a new set of songs soon, within a week later, Tommee announced it on his Facebook page! This song has that fusion of both cinematic and rock genres. I liked the fact that since Sam is a rocker anyways, that he’s influencing his known genre into the actual song. So, the entire thing takes a different turn, it could’ve been an explosion of a song. It was a good song, don’t get me wrong, but the it wasn’t in your face like I figured and ultimately wanted it to be in the end. The last song is “Hurricane” with Fleurie and we end this cycle in a very emotional based track. It instantly gave me this sad vibe. It does gradually grow into this colorful flower, but it never really loses that feeling of being lost.
This was a great mix of different directions. I like the fact that Tommee is getting more experimental with his beats, and the fact he’s using other artists with different ranges and bring their own flavor with them. I think that’s one of my favorite things about this genre; it doesn’t matter what kind of music you generally wok with to help express yourself, if you’re up for the challenge, something good could come out of it. This is how other people, who have never heard of these artists before, can discover new music within that song.
Have you listened to Tommee Profitt’s new volume of cinematic songs yet? If so, which is your favorite?
I am back with the fourth installment of Tommee Profitt’s cinematic collection. This album came out on the 4th of July, which I thought was pretty cool! If you’ve been reading my previous reviews of Tommee’s music, you know how freaking obsessed I’ve become, like if I hear a small snippet of any of Tommee’s produced songs on a TV show, I have to rewind that sucker just to hear it again! I automatically get so excited, because I love the fact that this kind of music is being played in almost ways! This batch of songs are no different.
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