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?

Album Review: “Cinematic Songs, Volume 4” by Tommee Profitt

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.

Well, let’s get this started, shall we?

Click here to read Cinematic Songs, Volume 1 by Tommee Proffitt

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.

Click here to read Cinematic Songs. Volume 2 by Tommee Profitt

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.

Click here to read Cinematic Songs, Volume 3 by Tommee Profitt

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?

Album Review: “Cinematic Songs Vol. 3” by Tommee Profitt

Well, this time I was finally up-to-date on my music and found that Tommee Profitt had released a new volume of cinematic songs to the world! In the beginning of February, I had some issues and couldn’t get my music to work and so I had to resort to going old school and used YouTube again. I love listening to Tommee’s music so I must’ve needed to hear a couple of my favorites from the previous albums, and somehow I found a couple of new songs by chance and at first, I didn’t even know they were really new until later on when I went on Spotify again and the whole thing popped up!

The album itself has a total of thirteen tracks, two of which are instrumentals, and yes I was very happy about that! If you’ve read the reviews of volume one and two, there a few artists that are featured on this that may seem familiar to you. I’m happy to see Tommee has other great people working with him on this one too! I think it’s a nice way to bring out new talent and get their voices heard to a bigger audience since more and more people are starting to really enjoy trailer or cinematic music like I do!

We start off with “I Know Your Secrets” that features Liv Ash. She was one that was on the last album, and I thought her sweet, low voice was perfect for this song. It kind of adds an edger element to it. She’s very commanding and matches well to the beat itself, but I think the song would be better without the sound in general. I do love the last minute or two, where the hefty bass drops! It’s such a powerful sound! Second is “Empire” with Christian rapper Steven Malcolm, I really liked this! I thought it was very upbeat, I really like the more hip hop sound to it. I know I mentioned this already, but I real weakness for cinematic rap or hip hop and this doesn’t help it, but I don’t care!

Next we have “Will I Make It Out Alive” with Jessica Early and this, along with the first song were the two tracks I found on YouTube earlier last month. They were the ones that made me look into this a little more, because I usually have a pretty good memory, but I needed to make sure I wasn’t losing it! This is pretty quiet compared to the first two, but I’ve really grown to like the mellower ones lately so it’s not bad. After that, we venture into “Rebel Renegade” with Beacon Light, another rapper that I really enjoyed on volume two. First off, I really love the title! It has a nice ominous tone to it, but it also has a strong beat that isn’t too obnoxious. Sixth song is “Only One King” which made me believe that it had some strong religious views to it, and that’s fine. I think some of my favorites might’ve had that as inspiration. It features Jung Youth, who is a rapper out of Nashville. The song itself is pretty low on energy, but it’s not bad though!

We have our first instrumental track next called “Benevolence” and I swear this is one of my favorite words. I think the word has a beautiful meaning and I just like how it’s spelled. I know I’m weird, we’ve already established this a long time ago! I think the sound of it goes great with the meaning, it starts off really soft and slowly comes alive to this beast, but it never loses the sweet notes to it that the piano brings. Next we go back to the vocal tracks and this one has two artists on it. “Rescue” features Raine Wilder and another favorite Svrcina Raine’s mostly works on hip hop and alternative–some people would consider “cinematic” alternative music–projects. Svrcina is purely on the backing vocals, so she’s not prominent compared to him, but I think it is still an interesting dymantic with the strong music that slowly but surely grows.

And then we hear another familiar voice, Sam Tinnesz is back with the first of two songs he’s featured on this album. “The Hate Inside” brings out his mysterious demeanor, and I really like how the beat is somewhat tailored to his low voice. It sort of has a pop-hip hop element to it, as it doesn’t have that recognizable commanding sound like the some of the other tracks. It mostly stays at a hauntingly, slow pace so it’s pretty unique. The ninth song is “When The Sun Goes Down” and it has Laney Jones, and she has this soft little voice, but you instantly know it’s going to be an interesting track after that first ping goes off. Despite this assessment though, it takes it a bit to build into the beast I knew it would be, you just have to patient. You need to hold off until you hear 3:47, trust me you’ll really like that part!

We’re getting down to the wire now with the last four songs! We have “This Ship Is Going Down” with singer Xeah, This one was a totally different take then what I was expecting, because I’m hearing autotone in the choruses. It kind of gives me old 90’s or early 00’s pop music vibes but it’s definitely cinematic, there’s no questions about it. It’s very interesting that’s the only way to describe it! Last instrumental is “Decimator” which made me think it would be big and heavier than the other track, we all know that I can be wrong. Thankfully, this time I wasn’t! It was everything that I thought it would sound and then some with the addition of the choir! It’s very short, but amazing too! We have Sam Tinnesz back with “Cruel World” and I really like the fact you can hear a slight rock sound with this one, at least to me this is what I got from it! It’s not overwhelming, kind of soft and mellow. And lastly, we have “Where You Are” with another favorite Mike Mains. This one has a very soft introduction, I actually liked it. It was a perfect way to end a jam packed album.

I thought this was a very good batch of songs! I actually like it more than the last one, but I don’t know because I was so late to the party, but I think the more Tommee does these albums, the better he gets! And of course, I love discovering new artists and Christian rappers, like Jessica Early, Steven Malcolm, and Xeah! If you haven’t listened to it yet, you really need to find it either on Spotify or YouTube, or hey you can even buy it on iTunes too!

If you have listened to volume three, what are your favorite songs so far? Who do you think Tommee should work with on the next one? Let me know!

Album Review: “Cinematic Songs Vol. 2” by Tommee Profitt

Okay, so I know this isn’t anything to do with Christmas, but I wanted it up before the end of the year.

Back in February, I reviewed Tommee’s first collection of cinematic songs and I thought it was a big hit. However, in the mist of everything going on in my life this year, I seemed to have forgotten about the possibility of the second volume being released sometime later this year. It wasn’t until two weeks ago that I had the thought “oh, I wonder if he’s released anything new lately?” and  sure enough I went on Spotify and there was the next 13 tracks for volume two. Believe in your gut guys, when it starts telling you something listen to it, even if it’s something such as this!

I think this batch came out several months ago, because Tommee’s newest song “Your Love Awakens Me” came out in July, so there’s a big chance it came out around April and I’m sadly just finding it now.  Since I reviewed the last one, I have decided to talk about this too.

If you don’t know what cinematic music or epic cinematic as its usually called, is music that sounds like it belongs with an advertisement of a new movie, TV show and/or video game. The themes cover loss, love, hatred, breakthroughs, and war. The music itself has both symphony incorporated with some pop elements here and there, but it’s mostly hard hitting and can also sound heartbreaking too.

We start this with a song called “Hero” and it features singer Mike Mains and he originally makes indie rock music. I like how some of these artists that don’t usually create music like this on a daily basis are getting out of their comfort zones. I loved the slow start and the gentleness of it. It fits well with Mike’s soft voice, however, I think there is some rock elements in this song, especially in the heavy sound of the drums towards the end. Everybody knows I love a good start to any album and this nails it. Next, we have “Tomorrow We Fight” and I loved how this song made me think of my story I’m writing–this is what the genre does to me! Anyways, we have a very ominous beginning but you get that war theme right away and it’s strong. The sound is very light, but artist Scvrina also brings that out in her vocals too.

Third is “We Runnin” that features Beacon Light, who is a Christian rapper and I really, really enjoyed this song. Tommee didn’t feature any rappers on the last album, even though I know he had worked with NF so I’m happy as a clown to see him put this artist on this collection. The song has a playful vibe to it after the verses end, and the beat drops. I actually enjoy hip hop cinematic beats, I think they’re fun and energetic! The normal cinematic sound isn’t as prominent in this track but I don’t mind it. I actually don’t like the ending of it, I feel like going into the climax is too much and I think it should have just been him ending it in the way it started. The beat itself was interesting without that part in it. After that is “Shoot To Kill” and the artist included is Quivr and I’ve had the worst time finding anything about this person. Sorry. The song itself is very mellow compared to the others which is good because you don’t want every song to sound so big and powerful, even though that’s what everybody looks for in this genre, so I do enjoy the change in tempo.

Next we have “Breathe” which features a singer you might’ve heard before, as she was included in the last one: Fluerie. I actually recognized this, because it was released back in July. I feel as though that should have been my warning that something was up. The quiet introduction with only the piano and the gentleness of Fluerie’s voice is just beautiful. It is so dreamy and mysterious all mixed up together. It’s everything that I love really. One thing that I actually liked about the first album was the amount of instrumentals, there were only like three tracks that Tommee made but I thought they were all unique even though I kind of prefer the ones with different vocalists, so the fact that he only has two instrumentals on this album was a little sad, “Gambling With Fate” is really good, it’s not in your face from start to finish, but it does grab your attention and I actually liked it for that mellow vibe I got from listening to it.

We go back in the war related theme with “Ready For War” with artist Liv Ash, this is another mellow sounding track, but I feel like Liv’s strong but deep voice is an interesting mix. I think it is a perfect medium to her voice, it’s not overpowering like the end of track number three. It’s not bad. I felt as though with the next one sounds like a Halloweenie song, because the spooky organ in the introduction. I thought that was so strange considering we’re in December now. This is called “My Domain” and it features Scrvina again, and it has a more urban, pop feel to it than a fierce cinematic song. However, I don’t hate it. I think it’s different and makes you think twice of what this genre should sound like at all times.

Next is “Heart Of The Darkness” and if you liked the first album, you might remember the featured singer on this track: Sam Tinnesz. I was so happy to see him back on the second collection! The song itself is very light, it has a bit of a pop feel to it. So in a way, I was a bit disappointed but then again I started to enjoy it the more it continued. The tenth song is “Turns You Into Stone” which I thought was an curious title when I first saw it. This features Miss Fluerie again and it has a little ethereal feel, but I feel like that’s become like a calling call for her. She’s like a damn siren, you just want to hear everything that has her on it and this isn’t any different. However, I think you can hear that voice of hers better in this song than the others I’ve heard this year.

The last three songs, start with “Undefeated” and it features Beacon Light again. I was glad that Tommee actually gave him hip hop beats to rap over, it just gives the listener another level of the genre. I really enjoyed the beat drop and I was so happy that his didn’t have to scream over the orchestra parts at the end. I will say though, I think I prefer the first track, but I don’t know I’d have to hear a few more times before I really make a decision. Next is “Hold On For Your Life” and it has Sam Tinnesz on it. This has a really somber, almost dreamy vibe in the beginning. It definitely brings out that loss theme in the lyrics. It’s a gorgeous ballad, if we should put it into that category. The last one is “Moonlight Sonata Mvt. 3” and Tommee had released this back in 2016, but he added it here as a bonus track. It’s a classical piano instrumental but it has that touch of cinematic magic added to it, and it sounds very cool. I’ve always thought pianists that can play that quick are geniuses. It also makes me wonder at one point of time could my papaw do the same thing?

By the time I finished listening to this album, I had stopped kicking myself or my this case wanted to stop kicking myself for the fact that it took me so long to find it. I still feel like crap, but hopefully that’ll go away soon. Anywho, the second album is a good rival to the first. I am loving all of the new singers that Tommee featured on here. If you didn’t know, majority of the artists included on his songs are Christians and can be from around both Michigan and Nashville. So he is bringing out artists that you may not have heard yet, because people just assume that gospel/worship is boring, but in this type of enlivenment you can’t tell that they identify themselves more in that category of music. Same goes with the ones from Nashville, not all of the musicians that come out of that place want to be country singers. Keep your ears and heart open to new music everyday folks!

Have you heard of Tommee Profitt’s “Cinematic Songs Volume 2” yet? If you have, what are some of your favorite(s)?