Album Review: “Cinematic Songs Vol. 7” by Tommee Profitt

When Tommee Profitt comes out with something new, especially an album, you know I have to come out of hiatus for it. Fortunately, this isn’t the only review I am doing this summer. There is a big possibility you will get another when I come back for the end of July.

I didn’t even know it was coming out until about four days before it was released. As of the 20th of June, I still hadn’t listened to it because I kept going back and forth whether I wanted to blog about it, like as a proper album review, but since I hadn’t done one of these in so long that I literally almost vetoed it altogether. Thankfully, I changed my mind because I am in need of a cinematic binge, what about you?

So, let’s recap before we go too far into this post. Tommee started launching these clusters back in 2017. It doesn’t seem that long ago, but it might have something to do with the fact I never talked about volume six–I still don’t understand why I never did anything with it but I will say, it is still an album that isn’t as popular compared to the others for me. After that release, he took a mini break and worked with Fleurie (who frequently lends her voice and lyrics on past works) with their ‘Game of Thrones’ project “Gloria Regali” and then he devoted his time with Christian rapper NF on “The Search” (2019) and “CLOUDS MIXTAPE” (2021), but now he’s back with this bad boy, and I think we’re ready to get into it now.

The first track, “Who Will Save Us” actually features Fleurie, which honestly doesn’t surprise me. Tommee is known to work with both veterans in the cinematic world and some newbies too! I really liked the mild sounding of the introduction, it collides into Fleurie’s voice really well and even when the song explodes with this fierce power, neither one of these aspects are lost in the chaos. My only bad thing about is, it’s pretty short and I think I would have liked it more if it was a little longer and surprised me a little more too. Next we move on to, “Sinners & Saints” and this was the song that made me think we could be getting some new music by Tommee but I did not think an album would follow suit! I adore Beacon Light and I always feel happy and sort of lighter while listening to his songs and this one wasn’t any different. The one thing I wasn’t expecting was Moilba Mustapha and that country vibe coming through in the choruses. It is really good and definitely hits differently!

The artist Stanaj has a gorgeous voice! Personally, I am still obsessed with their track “Love Me” so I was thoroughly ecstatic to see them on here working with Tommee. “I Will Be Your Hero” really cuts you deeply with that slow beginning with just Stanaj’s soft vocals and piano in the background. You always know the song is going to be good if the piano is the main instrument–at least for me it always is! This song is so full of emotions and raw; it’s almost sexy in a way. Our fourth song is “Be Careful” with Laney Jones. I’m pretty sure Laney has been on the other albums but don’t hold me against that because I could be wrong. Anyways, I am in love with the music box lullaby start because it gives it a sweetly dark vibe and thankfully we glide into that feeling for the entire track. I need more of these type of songs honestly. I am surprised it was playing during the promos for the new Conjuring film that came out earlier last month.

As much as I didn’t want it the previous to end, we move to “Reign” with Anna Graceman. Now I will say, I don’t recognize Anna’s name nor her voice, but I like it. She has a soulful element that I didn’t think I needed until I heard it for this song. The track is very pop oriented but with her type of voice, it kind of gives off this bluesy vibe that isn’t overbearing by any means, but it is there as she hits those high notes towards the end. One thing I definitely approve of these albums–well, technically, I approve of a lot of things, but this is a favorite of mine!–s that he will include one or two instrumentals and with this installment, we get two of them. We begin with “Nocturnal Opus” and it definitely gives off that feeling it was created either late at night or after you’ve been up wayy over your limit. However, I really enjoy the eerie sound of the choir in the background. The entire track is spooky and wonderful. It ties in beautiful with “Be Careful” although they are two songs apart from each other.

“Powerful” is the one that I’ve been looking forward to the most as it has two of my favorites: Sam Tinnesz and Ruelle. These artists are very well-known in the cinematic pop world, as Ruelle has worked with the TV series Shadowhunters and Sam Tinnesz is basically everywhere now! I hear them all the time and it always makes so happy to see them getting all of this attention. The song itself is pretty mild but I honestly enjoy this seductive balance between Sam and Ruelle’s voices. They are both quite soft and it was nice to hear a beat match their octaves in this way. I had to listen to this one about three times to actually relish in it for a while. However, I had to go on and “Frontlines” was a nice sequel. It has another guest artist that has worked with Tommee before, Jessie Early. She reminds me of Ruelle but with an extra punch, I think Ruelle is very airy, dreamy sound whereas Jessie has a darker edge and is perfect fit on these fast paced tracks. I think my overall favorite element of this one are the string section near the end. They really make the song better!

The eighth record is called “Wake Up” and we have Xeah and this is so beautiful! I really adored the simple introduction, where its just their voice in that low, almost monotone sound and nothing else. We get a few lines like that but then it explodes and it is really strong and suspenseful in every way. The most interesting thing is, Xeah doesn’t have a lot of lyrics so the rest is instrumental, and it is super hypnotic. I thought this was the coolest one on the album, until I heard the next one. “Lament From The Grave” features Stanaj again, and I don’t want language Stanaj is singing but I love it! It kind of gave me like Hans Zimmer vibes because I’ve heard several tracks that are similar, so it was an interesting and new thing for not only me, but Tommee too, because we haven’t heard anything like this before. It sounds exotic and heartwarming at the same time though.

We are nearing the end of our time together; I hope you’re still with me.

I am such a sucker for anything with a little bit of moxie in it. “Welcome to my world” is definitely one of those types of songs. The artist included in this one is :LYRA, and I don’t quite know if they have been on previous numbers or not, but I like their voice. I feel like this could be great playing on the first episode of “Riverdale” new season this fall or perhaps the reboot of “Gossip Girl” It has a gripping but flirty sound and it is so good! Next is our final instrumental, “The Day Before” and I don’t know about you, but anything with these three words will have a sad element to it. You may not hear it at first but it’s there. I think it was really good, not at all crazy but perfectly balanced to showcase both a lighter and sort of panic atmosphere and it really works well with the final track, which is “Tragic” with Fleurie. It is a beautiful broken type of song and I really like these different sounds of bells going on in the background. It was the perfect ending.

I was honestly a little worried after I started this post, because I wasn’t sure I could do it anymore. I feel like I’m not the best person to review albums because I’m not great at describing things–I feel like I’m worse at discussing music. So, I took a big risk at jumping in with a Tommee Profitt produced album but I did it. I may never understand why I didn’t talk about volume seven but this one was really impressive! It was definitely needed after we went through in 2020, so I would rate it as six out of ten stars altogether.

Have you listened to “Cinematic Songs (Vol 7)” by Tommee Profitt yet? If you have, what song(s) was your favorite? What about the guest singers too?

Music Monday | Tommee Profitt

Hello!

For my last post for this series, I will be talking about Tommee Profitt. A music producer, composer and songwriter that I’ve been keeping up with since probably the end of 2017. I still don’t really know how I found him in the first place; I do remember I was on Spotify, but the connection between the two is still a little foggy. Anyways, it happened and it’s been incredible journey so far!

What a lot of people don’t understand is that, everything is connected in some form or another. Everything happens for a reason.

To me, there really isn’t a big jump between symphonic metal and cinematic/trailer music. I think there are a lot of similiarities between the two of them, epesically when it comes to writing the concept. The lyrics are easy to read and can be filled of different emotions. They both encourage the use of choir and big orchestra elements depending on the mood of the song itself.

Now as I say “trailer” music, I don’t necessarily mean Hans Zimmer, Alan Silverstri, etc. Nowadays, composers like Tommee and vocalists you have probably never heard of yet somehow they are (mostly) all located in Nashville are creating these gorgeous songs for various promos and they are becoming the new generation of what is cinematic music. Lately, the world has started to see the genius of Tommee’s work, which is really awesome! Two years ago, Tommee teamed up with a long time contributor Fleurie to do a tribute album for the final season of “Game Of Thrones”. I previously listened to the soundtrack that was put together Travis Scott, Ellie Goulding, Hallie x Chloe, etc. However, this one was worthy to be part of the score I thought because it was so beautiful with Fleurie’s dreamy vocals and fierce compositions behind her in the music.

You may not know this, but last year he worked with Christian rapper NF on his album The Search. I think the two of them have worked together before this release, but I’m not too sure about it. I feel like I can judge what feels and sounds like something Tommee would create, but in the last two cinematic compilations, he is starting to expeiment with other genres like country and a little bit of rock, which is great but sometimes I have issues with figuring out what Tommee has produced for him or not. There are other artists he tends to work with a lot, and they are Sam Tinnesz, Ruelle and Jung Youth. If you haven’t heard of anybody featured in this post, you should definitely give everybody a listen, trust me, you’ll end up loving something among the people I’ve included in here.

Have you heard of Tommee Profitt’s work? If you have, list that person or any others below in the comments for me! Do you have a favorite track too?

Book Review: “Faithful Traitor” by Samantha Wilcoxson

Hello!

Back in mid-June, my mom surprised me one night with the fact that we now had Kindle Unlimited. At first, I was happy about it but as I was attempting to go online within five minutes after reading that text message, our WiFi turned off and both of my parents were in bed asleep. I had to wait roughly nine hours for them to get up and turn it back on, but once they did I began my search for my next book. However, I wasn’t even close to finishing my previous read: “Three Dark Crowns” by Kendare Blake. I really didn’t have to wait too long because I was running through it fast as lightning!

It was rough making my decision on my next read because I really wanted to go into a non-fiction but keep the same theme I was in the month before and as soon as I saw the cover, I knew it was apart of my Goodreads long TBR; it has been on my “to be read” list since 2017 and apparently it had been released a year earlier, so yeah, I’d been waiting quite a long time to check it out for myself.

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Margaret Pole is no stranger to fortune’s wheel. From her childhood as firstborn of the heir apparent of England, she was brought low as the daughter of a traitor. After years of turmoil as the Tudor dynasty made its roots, Margaret finds favor with her cousin, King Henry VIII.

Will the remnant of the York dynasty thrive under this tempestuous king or will Margaret discover that there is a price to pay for having an excess of royal blood?

Step into Tudor England . . . .

taken from Goodreads.

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Back in 2006, I was a freshman in high school and I was never into reading at all and my English teacher at the time, told all of us that if we didn’t find anything to read on Fridays that we would be forced to find something in the classroom to read, and this terrified me! So, within a week I discovered the fictional side of bookshelves, and I found out that I really enjoyed reading about people, both famous and lesser known, and I just loved seeing how people lived in certain time period and situations. So, in a way I give my former English teacher lots of credit to my love of the Tudor era.

When I first started reading this book, I thought it would be a biographical story of Margaret Pole, like when I read about her cousin Elizabeth of York by the author Alison Weir a few years ago, but in reality it is more fictionized than I had originally realized but after a couple chapters I actually grew to enjoy it this way. I haven’t had a lot of good luck staying interested in these types of books lately so, I was both concerned and thrilled at the same time!

So, the author has written this story as part of a Plantagenet series, starting with Elizabeth of York, who was at the heart of the War Of The Roses. She was a York princess that married the Lancastrian heir Henry Tudor, thus creating the beginning of the Tudor dynasty. This one is about her cousin. Elizabeth’s father was King Edward IV and Margaret’s father was his brother George, Duke Of Clarence. By the time we approach Margaret’s story, she is at home in Brockmar, with her husband Richard Pole and children: Henry, Arthur, Reginald, and Ursula after she has heard the news of her cousin’s death.

Every chapter goes by a certain month and year at the top, so unless you know your Tudor dates really well, you can keep track to the bigger moments happening. However, this is again, a fictionized tale of her life, which means some things are made up here and there, but I didn’t mind it at all.

I have always built up that wall that medieval women and girls – did the women always do what they were suppose to? Did they even bash an eye at things that maybe we would in modern times? I was basically forced to face reality and give these women more credit at shielding their true feelings. Between this book and the STARZ television series based on Philippa Gregory’s novels; I’ve tried to squash that state of mind and for Margaret, she had been through a lot in her lifetime, both good and bad moments in history, so it was much more difficult to stick to that mindset because honestly she had it rough, and I have felt very sympathic to her over in the last few years.

One thing I was a tiny bit confused was after the death of her husband, she did not want to depend on the court and her cousin King Henry VIII for the rest of her life. As she was marrying off her eldest son Henry, he was hoping a little bit too much on a role to the king and Margaret makes a point that she doesn’t want him to hope too much for that to happen. However, after his marriage, he does get promoted by the king as he turns into Lord Montague and Margaret is graced with her ancestral title Countess of Salisbury. The Countess becomes one of Catherine Of Aragon’s ladies in waiting and after the birth of Princess Mary, she turns into her governess.

It’s at this point that her role of staying out of royal affairs, especially in the aftermath of the divorce proceedings between Henry and Catherine, breaking away from the Roman Catholic church, and eventual news of Henry’s decision to make his daughter illegitimated, really makes everything go topsy-turvy for Margaret and her family. I will say, I figured that all of this would be a fast decline as far as reading, but it stayed really balanced and there was enough of the story where nothing was too chaotic in my mind. Unfortunately, I did know how things ended for Margaret in real life. So, when I got to that part, it was so incredibly sad. I was so into the story and would consider this Margaret as a friend, the downfall really made me emotional.

Now like I said in the beginning of this post, this is a series of three books and that means the next story is about Princess Mary and I’m thinking it will start at the death of Margaret since that’s how this book began, but I’m not really sure. I do want to read the other two, but if you are concerned if you need to start with book 1 and continue down the line, you really don’t have to do it that way, which I really seemed to enjoy the most.

Have you read “Faithful Traitor: The Story Of Margaret Pole” by Samantha Wilcoxson yet? Are you a lover of these types of fictionized stories about royals, whether they are current or medieval?

Album Review: “Asking Alexandria” by Asking Alexandria

Here is my first review of 2018!

I had made a promise to myself that it didn’t matter how long it took me, I would review both Asking Alexandria and G-Eazy’s new albums that came out in mid-December. As much I loved doing the Christmas music reviews, these were the two that I was more excited to talk about on here!

The British band consists of Ben Bruce and Cameron Liddel on guitars, Sam Bettley on bass, and James Cassells plays the drums. In 2016, I reviewed my first AA album, when they released “The Black” with new front singer Denis Stoff. As everybody was freaking out about the departure of Danny Worsnop and don’t get me wrong, I love Danny’s voice but I was embracing the new style that was in front of me, because I didn’t think this next part would happen. Danny is now back in the band and this was their new material for their fans.

So we will start off the album with “Alone In A Room” and it starts off kind of slow before it all awakens in sound. The sound itself was gentle and very mild, but I liked it. Danny’s low and soft voice in this track, it’s the perfect starter I thought. He is known for his way of singing and then switching to the very harsher growls and yells that is metal music. However, I was glad that he kept that side away in this song. Next is their first single, “Into The Fire” and this was what made me happy because it’s everything that I love! It’s heavy, but with a hint of mysterious in the music. Danny sound so powerful and the section towards the end, the bridge is just gorgeous! I love hearing him yell, which is weird to say out loud, but he sounds so strong.

Third is “Hopelessly Hopeful” and for some odd reason, I had the hardest time spelling the title for this one. I liked the strange introduction, but the song as a whole wasn’t one of my favorites. I didn’t like the mellow sound of it, well I take that back. It wasn’t necessarily the beat that really bothered me, it was more of Danny’s voice. I thought his voice was too high pitched for the sound itself. The only time I liked both together was when his voice sounded static in the middle. Another favorite is our next track, “Where Did It Go?” and I will say, I don’t pay attention to lyrics a lot, especially with rock bands, but Danny speaks pretty quickly in the verses and the second verse, he explains the start of the band, the album before he left and the “fourth one” explaining why he left the band as “they needed a room to breathe” and speaking about their future. I thought it was genius. The sound itself gives it that edge too. I’m sure I’ve listened to it over a hundred times when it came out in early November!

And then there’s “Rise Up” and, I felt this was a great heavy track to have after the last one since it was pretty upbeat too. I think the meaning is as inspirational as the previous song. The choruses really pull you in and I feel like it will be on everyone’s workout playlist! Next we have “When The Lights Come On” and when the album came out, I wanted to hear a bit of it, so I put it on shuffle and when this song started playing, I immediately put it on my “Starred” list on Spotify. I’m seriously addicted! The only way to describe the song itself is saying, if you’ve ever been curious about how it feels when your favorite band goes out on stage every night, this is your answer! They did a pretty good job of giving you a taste into their mindset. The sound itself was perfect, it right balance between energetic and in your face.

The seventh track is “Under Denver” and this one is sort of mellow. It’s not a heavy track by any means, it is slower and dare I say? Gentle. I love how this one sounds, it has these electric notes and the static, it’s just different and I like it. I have always went back and forth with the lighter side of rock and roll, because I do love hearing the melodies and the actual  words of the lyrics, but the harsher songs can put me in a better mood no matter what is going on in my life. Next we have another song that has only Danny’s calm voice and an acoustic guitar, with a like drum sequence. It is a called “Vultures” and I feel like it’s the perfect theme for the word, I know that’s weird to say but I got a somber vibe while listening to the song itself and it made me think of actual vultures too. It’s pretty good. After that is “Eve” and we’re back on the ominous train full of loud screams and harsh guitars. I like it, purely for the creepy aspect of it, which sounds about right.

We’re on the last three songs of the album. There’s actually a fourth but it’s the radio edit of “Into The Fire” and that only means that it’s shorter in length, so there’s no point in talking about that one again! So we start it with “I Am One” and we have a true rock and roll sound, although at first I thought it had a bit of a punk feel to it too. It’s soft, but still up in your face though! This wasn’t one of my favorites, but I’ve learned over the years to never really believe in what I initially say, because I’ll just switch anyways! Next we have “Empire” and this is a bit interesting as you can clearly hear Ben Bruce in this track. He’s usually singing in the background anyways, but this one you can hear him really well. You also have rapper Bingx featured in this song too. I’ve never heard of him, so forgive me about that! I thought it was a cool song, it sounded different from what we usually hear from Asking Alexandria, even though it still has the same elements, they just added another singer that raps.  Last one is “Room 138” and it has this echo-y introduction that slowly changed to a fast paced track. You can feel the emotion being put into this song. It’s actually pretty mellow music wise, the only thing that is right in your face is Danny’s angry yells. I like it though.

I am glad the band patched up their issues and came back together, and recorded this album for their fans. I was kind of surprised that I actually liked it, since I was okay with their previous one, I didn’t think I’d be feel like that this was real, but still I’m glad it is. Out of 12 songs, I didn’t like two of them, that’s pretty good I think! It was a nice balance between the perfect go crazy in the most pit and sway back and forth with a lighter songs. It was really good!

Have you heard of Asking Alexandria’s new album? What did you think of it? Let me know!

Best Of 2017 | Film

Howdy!

This is one of my favorite posts, but I don’t know why, I have a tiny theory that it has something to do with the fact that it’s like a mini review to all of the movies I’ve watched this year, but what’s funny is that I only made up last year’s post because I just needed to release my thoughts on how horrible Gods Of Egypt was, but as I was writing the post I realized how fun it was to do that!

I think I will change it up for 2018, because since I create my “coming soon” movie posts twice a year, I feel like I should create another one of these posts so I’m not keeping it all locked up in my head and it’s not so damn long either. I just might do that considering I had over 30 movies on a notepad of all the movies I had watched this year! Oh, and don’t worry next Monday you should have the first half of 2018’s new movies to be released!

I was going to do this in the same way I did last year’s post, but since I have so many movies that it would be really long and I don’t need to be working on this post for days on end, so I’m hoping a simple rating system will suffice for you guys and maybe next year I’ll break them up and it won’t be so damn complicated for me. The rating system will be 1 out of 10, 5 being neutral or so-so.

Underworld: Blood Wars – 7
Split – 9
Resident Evil: The Final Chapter – 8
Logan – 8
Beauty and the Beast – 6
Wonder Woman – 10
Finding Dory – 9
The Legend of Tarzan – 4
Star Trek: Beyond – 8
Morgan – 9
Doctor Strange – 4
Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them – 10
Sing – 7
The Comedian – 6
Dirty Grandpa – 6
Jon Wick Chapter 2 – 10
How To Be Single – 10
Mother’s Day – 8
Me Before You – 9
The Secret Life of Pets – 6
La La Land – 6
The Accountant – 9
Inferno – 8
The Arrival – 8
Jackie – 7
Hidden Figures – 9
Passengers – 7

What were some of your favorite movies that came out either late 2016 or all of 2017? Did you have any that you absolutely hated too?