Blogmas | Ultimate Christmas Playlist

Hello & Merry Christmas to everyone out there!

Whenever I have a post going up on a holiday, I try to have something easy and laidback for my readers. I can’t get myself to publish a long chatty type of post, although it looks like I can after looking at what I’ve written for this! I know it is a day to be around your family or friends and enjoy that time together, even in this COVID mess but I promised you a Christmas playlist though, so that’s what I am going to do today.

I’ve actually done a lot of Christmas playlist posts over the years, so I know I’ve discussed this many, many times on here but I love traditional, jazz and soul Christmas music more than anything else, but I seemed to have found a whole collection of classic holiday songs in the style that I hold dear to my heart: epic! And what gets me, is that I’ve tried it out before, but it never registered as much even when I reviewed Lindsey Stirling’s holiday album in 2018. There is just something about it all now, that I just think there is something about it that is totally different than what I’ve been listening in the last three years!

For me, epic music–also known as trailer and cinematic music–is all about powerful moments, and when its paired with action and sadness, it can manifest even more and I think that’s why I enjoy listening to it so much, because it can bring out all sorts of things in a person. Whereas Christmas music is pulling out memories of their childhood. Every single song is in one emotion and that is almost always happiness, unless it is playing loudly in the middle of August or September, then it’s just pure annoying to everyone who tries to keep the holiday season until the start of November or for us Americans, after Thanksgiving.

I have chosen a great selection of incredible music for you with my Spotify playlist but here are my Top 22 holiday tunes to explore right now. If you would like to check out the full listing, please click here!

Let It Snow, Let It Snow, Let It Snow by Vaughn Monroe
Somewhere In My Memory by John Williams
Dance Of The Sugar Plum Fairy by Lindsey Stirling
Ding Dong Merrily On High by Celtic Woman
Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas by Hugh Martin
Do You Want To Build A Snowman by Kristen Ball
O Holy Night by Anuna
Blame It On The Mistletoe by Ella Henderson featuring AJ Mitchell
Carol Of The Bells by Jennifer Thomas
The Joy Of Adventure by Amadeus Indetzki
Silent Night by Halocence
Epic Christmas by IMAscore
Santa Claus Is Coming To You by Alala
Rockin Around The Christmas Tree by Brenda Lee
Christmas Medley by Two Steps From Hell
Winterspell by Thomas Bergersen x Two Steps From Hell
Jingle Bells by Kaskade featuring Soran
New Fallen Snow by Philip Wesley
Jingle Bell Rock by Bobby Helms
That Spirit Of Christmas by Ray Charles
White Christmas by The Drifters
The Christmas Song by Nat King Cole

Well, I’ve definitely proved I was willing to listen to other genres when it comes to Christmas music. A lot of the songs are featured on my two favorite holiday films and that helped make it slightly more difficult to figure out what I wanted to share on this post because I know I’ve probably talked about them in the past too..

I tried to listen to Stan Kenton’s Christmas album on Spotify, but I couldn’t get through the one song I clicked to play the night I finished this. I can listen to his type of music, which was jazz and blues, but when it comes to Stan Kenton, I still have some issues with it. It’s nothing major, but I tend to cry about it later and I know he would be mad at me for doing that, because it gave him so much joy all throughout my childhood. I will listen to one song this morning just to show him how much I love and miss him on Christmas.

What is your favorite genre to listen to Christmas music? What about an individual song too?

EP Review: “Visions” by UNSECRET

While I was busy discovering Tommee Profitt’s third cinematic release last month, I actually found another batch of epic music that I accidentally stumbled upon on YouTube. There is literally no information about UNSECRET, there is nothing on their social medias of whether it’s a group, duo or one person creating the beats, and once a cycle is up, they just kind of disappear. All I’ve managed to find out that is that they’re released a new album and it features different artists, some you might know already and there’s a few you may not! The album is called “Visions” and consists of six songs, all with a different singer on the track itself. So let’s get right into it!

The first song we start off is “Wake Up World” and it has one of my favorite female cinematic artists, Ruelle. You may have heard of her music on different TV shows like The Vampire Diaries and Shadowhunters. UNSECRET has chosen a very soft introduction to the record. Ruelle has a beautiful soft and raw quality in her voice, there’s so much emotion built into it, even if the track itself is very mellow. I figured it would be rather jam-packed but it’s a slow building, although it never really loses that chill atmosphere, it’s still very charming. Next we have “Running For Your Life” and again we have a soft beginning, but then we have this burst of ominous elements with the piano and an almost haunting synths. This featured Australian singer-songwriter Butterfly Boucher, and her voice is fairly low throughout the entire song, it just stays in that one pitch but it’s lovely against the heavy sounds in the background.

Third is “Be A Witness” and you might recognize this singer too. Fleurie’s airy voice is nice and this has a urban feel and pop vibe to me, so it could work to pretty much anything. And the next one is “No Mercy” with Icetope. This has a very serious and fast pace! I liked it a lot, but I’ve realized over time that these are usually the shortest songs on the entire thing! I’ve never heard of Icetope, and like UNSECRET, finding any information about her or them is virtually impossible!

Now we have the fifth track is another featuring Fluerie, “From This We Are Born” and I liked the soft breakaway from the previous song. It has its up tempo moments, but it’s not as intense as the other one, but I actually preferred Fluerie’s voice in this one. I like the story she’s telling. Lastly there’s “Never Give Up” and this has Rose Cousins, a Canadian folk/pop singer in it. I like the fact that we started this on a semi-low note and we’re going to end it in the same way. Rose’s voice is very sweet, loving and encouraging with the meaning of the song. I really enjoyed this one!

This was a very interesting release! I’m glad you can actually find other producers and composers actually making really good quality cinematic music and it also helps that there are people like me, who also enjoy the genre just as much. I always want to know whatever music is playing behind the trailer or commercial. And usually I’m very lucky and can find it easily because somebody has usually done the work for me! UNSECRET made a very slow and steady product that I actually loved. I don’t like the epic ballads that some do, I like the fire blazing dramatic showstoppers, but every once in a while with the right singer, they bring out a certain emotion out of a scene or whatever you may be feeling at the time, and it helps you get it out.

Have you heard of UNSECRET yet? Do you like cinematic music too? Are there other artists that sound like them? Let me know!