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: “Throne Of Glass” by Sarah J. Maas

Hello!

On the day I published my review of “Women Of Scotland” by Helen Susan Swift, I finished reading my then current book “Throne Of Glass”. If my mom hadn’t been ready for bed the night before, I would have been done with it because I was like 10% of the done so I will be forever kicking myself for that!

I have known about this series for an awful long time. I have seen their beautiful covers all over BookTube and they are one reason why I absolutely hate the saying “don’t judge a book by its cover” because that’s how I became interested in the series in the first place! I was attracted by their covers and I just wanted them for their beauty. So, the fact that I had an open opportunity to get the first book of the series for like a dollar on Amazon, a week or two after Christmas was amazing!

WARNING: There are spoilers included below! If you haven’t read the book/series, I’d highly recommend you skip the rest of this post

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After serving out a year of hard labor in the salt mines of Endovier for her crimes, 18-year-old assassin Celaena Sardothien is dragged before the Crown Prince. Prince Dorian offers her her freedom on one condition: she must act as his champion in a competition to find a new royal assassin.

Her opponents are men-thieves and assassins and warriors from across the empire, each sponsored by a member of the king’s council. If she beats her opponents in a series of eliminations, she’ll serve the kingdom for four years and then be granted her freedom. Celaena finds her training sessions with the captain of the guard, Westfall, challenging and exhilarating. But she’s bored stiff by court life. Things get a little more interesting when the prince starts to show interest in her … but it’s the gruff Captain Westfall who seems to understand her best.

Then one of the other contestants turns up dead … quickly followed by another. Can Celaena figure out who the killer is before she becomes a victim? As the young assassin investigates, her search leads her to discover a greater destiny than she could possibly have imagined.

taken from Goodreads

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I knew very little before going into this, I vaguely remember reading the description when I first heard about it (seven years ago is a long time!) and checked it as “want to read” on my Goodreads account. Other than that, I never really expected to see it anywhere but on my TBR list for the next decade. That’s part of my problem when I watch book hauls on YouTube, because I will collect over 20 books at a time and look into them on the site, and I will either leave it out or put it on my “curious” shelf with the others!

The book itself is very hefty and honestly it scared me in the beginning.

It had been a while since I’ve read an over 300+ page book, but I took the challenge and was quite proud of myself for buying it back in January. I was also extremely happy I still adored fantasy/historical fiction. After going reading Melissa de la Cruz’s novel “The Ring and The Crown” a couple of years ago, I was for sure thinking I had lost all desire to read another type of book that were written in both topics again.

This book hooked the moment we hear Celaena is being taken out of the salt mines and is escorted by the Captain Of The Guard and several other guards to this strange place. I immediately fell in love with Celaena, but what is so interesting is that she has this cocky attitude during this part and if you know me well enough, you’d understand that I do not like anybody–both real and/or fictionized–that acts this way! I also have to say that I remind family members to not be like that because karma is a real bitch and she’ll find you out quick! So, the fact that I loved Celaena was semi-cocky around her guards, especially Choal, cracked me up!

Although, there were times where I had issues with imagining the glass castle and various characters, I was still able to enjoy myself while learning more about Celaena’s world and it wasn’t until I was halfway in the book did I start to see everything come together in my head. Once I established this, I could see Nephemia easier and the smallest details of the castle and what everyone was wearing in the different chapters.

Another part that I loved was the fact that even though I knew in my mind I would start to figure out how everything ends for Celaena. The duel was a huge deal for her and us, of course, but from the time I had begun reading the second chapter I was spoiling the ways everything could work out for her in the end. However, once I got there I realized that I hadn’t done anything to mess things up for myself. It was still concealed and those final three chapters moved rather fast at first but nicely stilled for a moment, but I wasn’t in the know of what was about to happen afterwards.

I have to add one more thing. It is mostly for anyone who has read the book and possibly the rest of the series. Who were seeing in your mind as the “perfect” person to play each character? For me, I had issues coming up with both Celaena and Chaol, but Dorian was actually the easiest out of the bunch. I instantly thought of Dylan O’Brien. I’m not too familiar with him, but I loved him in the movie American Assassin (2018) and the way he looked in that film, became part of the map I was seeing described in the book. Choal was next and I am furious with myself that this one appeared, but an image of the actor who played Joffrey in Game Of Thrones popped in my head. I just imagined him a little older, so they matched in age. Choal was actually my favorite male character of the book.

Now as for Celaena though, I had the worst luck figuring her out. After several chapters and learning more of her personality, I finally came to the conclusion that Dove Cameron would be perfect! I’ve seen her play a villian on Agents Of S.H.I.E.LD. so that helped me establish she could fight hard and of course, she’s a natural blonde on top of it!

Have you read Throne Of Glass yet? If you have, what book (without spoiling too much for me!) are you on now? What were your thoughts on the first book?

Album Review: “For The Throne” by Game Of Thrones, Various Artists

I don’t know what made me decide to do this review, but I thought it would be fun and I also really wanted to talk about how you feel about these types of releases, are you fan of them or think they’re kind of annoying because they don’t match what you pictured in your head for the last nine years? You’ll find out my answer soon!

This album is pretty hefty, which I was kind of surprised but grew to like it because that leaves more room for other artists and genres they mainly work in on a daily basis. It’s also a collection of popular and no-so-popular artists as there were two that I have never heard of before so I am a bit intrigued to begin with so that’s a plus! When I started writing this review, I was already listening to the album but quickly stopped before I went too far to come back. Hmmm… sounds like something you’d hear before going over The Wall. Anyways, let’s start, shall we?

The first track is called “Kingdom Of One” by Country singer Maren Morris. It is such an eerie, but soft song that definitely embodies that Game Of Thrones vibe, as it’s darkness and somber look with every episode. I think it has the right amount of edge and makes you curious to what the rest of the record will sound like after it’s over. It’s perfect. The first single to be released was “Power Is Power” by The Weeknd featuring SZA & Travis Scott. I thought it was interesting how different this one and the previous song were, but I liked them for what they bring to the album as a whole! However, it does sound like the Black Panther song, “Pray For Me” with this popping beat at the end of the chorus, so that pretty much bummed me out a bit.

Check out music producer Tommee Profitt and artist Fleurie’s cinematic release “Gloria Regali” that was also inspired by the HBO series “Game Of Thrones.” 

We move on to “Nightshade” and I cannot lie, the first thing that jumped up at me was the big green explosion in season six. It is sung by The Lumineers, and thanks to the band’s background in folk music, the vibe of this song is totally new. In a way, it has this peppy sound mostly because of the pianist using the higher notes, so it has this urgent but calming atmosphere. I kept thinking something else was coming but it never doesn’t. It just stays in this one place and usually I’d find this really annoying but I liked it. The fifth track is “Hollow Crown” by Ellie Goulding and this may be an unpopular opinion to some, but you can’t have a movie or in this case a television show soundtrack without Ellie Goulding in it. Now as I say that, I thought this wasn’t as good as some of her others. I figured it would be much darker like the title somewhat suggests, but it’s not like that at all. The beat is fairly boring; nothing about it really grabs my attention and I was really shocked by it.

Next there’s “Baptize Me” by X Ambassadors featuring Jacob Banks. This was one of the artists I was unfamiliar with, so I had to go check him out after I was finished. I swore up and down it was Rag’Bone Man with his deep voice. I enjoyed the laid back vibe of this one. It has a nice groove to it, and I thought it was weird because I didn’t think it was a GoT type of song but then I thought, we need a light=heart song because it’s not all about blood and glory. One song that I thought brought out the most GoT feelings, was “Too Many Gods” by A$AP Rocky featuring Joey BadA$$. This was very mellow as far as rap songs go, so I ended up really loving it! It wasn’t too much in your face and gave you this calming perspective. Our seventh track is “Turn On Me’ by The National. They are a rock band that have been making music since 1999. I really, really liked the softness of it. I am so used to hearing epic songs for movies that I keep forgetting that rock-pop could be a really good change, because there are sweet moments between our characters and so I have grown to appreciate this take on these songs.

The ninth song is “From The Grave” by James Arthur. I love James Arthur. He gives out so much emotion and a rawness that I feel like I need to hear on a weekly basis to remind me “this is what men sound me”. I really loved this one because I feel like it could be a dedication to the characters that died throughout the duration of the show. We move on to “Me Traicionaste” by ROSALIA and A.CHAL. I thought this was an interesting track because this completely in Spanish. So, we bring in other worldly sounds to the album and despite having a couple of rap songs included for some reason I didn’t think there should be a song like this on it, but I enjoyed having it be apart of it too!

Our next song is “When I Lie” and it’s a remix of the original version. It’s by Lil Peep and features Ty Dolla $ign too. One thing that I really liked about it was this hip hop mixing with rock sound. It’s one of my favorite combinations! I’m familiar with Ty but not Lil Peep, but I thought both of their voices were great in that echo-y sense and it all has a nice groove to it so I thoroughly enjoyed myself with this. We move on to, “Love Can Kill” by another artist I never heard of before, but I grew to like her voice anyways. Her name is Lennon Stella. She reminded me of Alessia Cara and Billie Eilish. Anyways, I like this pop-y thing going on, but I didn’t get it was inspired by GoT but then once I really paid attention to it, I thought it could work. The twelfth song is “Wolf At Your Door” by Chloe x Hallie. I think these girls each have a beautiful voice and the beat itself embodied that vibe of the show. It was eerie but pop-y at the same time, it’s really good honestly!

These are the last couple of songs on the album. We have “Devil In Your Eye” by Mumford & Sons. I was surprised we didn’t have an Ed Sheeran song on here, but if there was an alternative route I guess Mumford & Sons is a good way to go! This was a great song, I liked the lightness of it, between the lead vocalist’s voice and the overall sound itself. It was nice. The final song is “Pray (High Valyrian)” and I’m really glad to see this type of track on the album. It is an essentially an instrumental, there are words but you can’t really hear them clearly to make out anything but maybe “pray” and unless you are an expert on Valyrian language, you’re kind of screwed. However, the song itself is really good. It’s mysterious and makes you wonder if it’s a clue to the ending of the series.

I was really surprised with this album. I actually ended up liking the majority of the songs on it. I also really enjoyed the variety of genres on it as well. It gave everybody a chance to release something they thought needed to be expressed, whether or not they are fans of the show. However, I’d hope everyone involved are fans in the first place! I definitely didn’t picture any of these songs and the artists on this, but I thought it was really cool to see this basically come alive.Anyways, I definitely recommend any fan of Game Of Thrones to listen to this soundtrack!

Have you listened to the “For The Throne” soundtrack yet? If you have, what were your favorite track(s) on it? 

Album Review: “Gloria Regali” by Tommee Profitt x Fleurie

At this time, we usually get another collection of epic songs by Tommee Profitt, and I guess you would say that this would fit but the album has a very specific theme and features only one artist. So, it’s something completely different, but yet it isn’t. I think with the release of the previous volumes in the last two years, I think they were the “calm before storm” if you will; allowing our ears to hear something new to get us in the groove of a project like this to take over.

This project “Gloria Regali” was inspired by the new and unfortunately final season of Game Of Thrones. Last year, I started watching the series and instantly enjoyed it too, but since DISH does not carry HBO anymore, I am not able to watch the season along with everybody. Honestly, I should have expected this. I wasn’t really surprised when they made the announcement that it would be their last season but for some odd reason this wasn’t on my radar! Anyways, I was really excited to see Tommee Profitt using the show and maybe even the books for something like this anyways. I think Fleurie’s voice is incredible so the fact that she’s the only main vocalist on the album is really exciting to me!

Check out my review of Tommee Profitt’s album Cinematic Songs, Volume 3  here.

Let’s start off with the first track of the album, which is the title track “Gloria Regali”. I like the fact that they start it off kind of quiet. The beat itself is intense from the moment it begins but Fleurie’s voice has this soft quality to it and as the song progresses the song just explodes with those loud drums and choir. It is a great beginning into this journey and if you have watched Game Of Thrones, it also gives you this nice image of the great war brewing and who might sit in the iron throne. The second song is “Onward & Upward” and I thought the sound was more grittier, kind of gave me the vibe of being Cersei’s theme song maybe? The reason why I say that is because Cersei is such a sly, malevolent character and between this hard-hitting beat and Fleurie’s dark emotions coming out in this. It just reassured me that this was her song, but of course I could be wrong too!

Next is “Noble Blood” and at first, I thought I would regret my original statement above, but then the more I thought about it. This could be for Queen Daenarys, Mother Of Dragons. Can you guess which team I root for? I feel like this one had a more sensual sound to it, which really led to my decision to think this could fit her in the end. I think Daenarys is a very strong character, she’s had to sacrifice a lot to get to where she is right now in the story, everytime she gives away a part of herself as far as love goes, it always seems to be taken away or used against her in some way. So she’s had to learn quick and fight within her own terms. After that, we finally have our instrumental and that is “Desolation” and the first person that popped into my head was Arya. She’s like Daenarys in a way that she’s had to grow up quick, but she’s just powerful and honestly I won’t want to cross either one of them. Your death will not be peaceful and I think that’s what this sound brings out, is this fire (no pun intended) and fierce pace fit for two strong women.

The fifth song is “Winter’s Song” of course. This brought me back to Jon Snow’s time at and beyond The Wall. I also think it’s beautiful funeral track to all of the characters we’ve lost throughout the series too. It’s just gorgeous! It is in your face, but it is very gentle. Next we have “Undone” and it also has another slow start, but I have learned to love these types of songs because they are usually the best, and I was right; the sound just continues to grow and grow and you just wonder how it will all end. The drop itself was mighty and even it had a bit of a hip hop sound towards the ending, but I thoroughly enjoyed it!

Our seventh track is “Premonition” and this instantly gave me Brann vibes. It’s the one song that I didn’t have to guess who it was for, because of the title! I do appreciate the fact that it is another instrumental. I like the change of sound with this one. It has a ton of different elements incorporated within it and I thought it had some depth to it compared to the others. We move onto “Midnight Oil” and it has this mysterious introduction that I really enjoyed, but I actually ended up loving the whole song. I instantly got this powerful feeling come around me the longer it went on! I really loved the fierce but gentle sound of the beginning but the end was monstrous and I couldn’t get enough of it really! Four minutes and five seconds was apparently NOT long enough for me!

I thought “Remembrance” was our only “real” ballad off the album. The usage of the piano was beautiful! I feel like it would fit every “Saying Goodbye To ‘Game Of Thrones'” videos on YouTube we will see just before the last episode premieres because it just has that kind of quality to it. However, I quickly realized that the melody itself is the same of another one of Tommee’s songs. “Tomorrow We Fight” and another thing they share is Fleurie herself too! I knew once I found the other one, my original thoughts would disappear, because I generally dislike hearing same lyrics and/or melody shared with multiple songs. It’s still good but I would have liked to hear something that wouldn’t have me so easily distracted in this way. The final song is “Sound Of War” and personally I hoped for a banger, between the title and being the last of anything GoT in general, you’re kind of expected it to end with a big bang. I did like the quirky sounds in the introduction and the intense banging was a kicker. I really enjoy hearing epic songs about wars. I know it’s weird as crap but there’s something with the raw emotions of the singer and the rush of everything going on in the sound behind them is so exciting! They make you feel invincible and powerful at the same time and I’m thankful that this gave me all of those feelings at the end. It was perfect!

I thought this was a fantastic lineup of music for not only GoT fans will enjoy but anybody that loves cinematic music in general. I also think that quite a few of them might end up on some people’s workout or motivational playlist. I don’t really have any bad notes to add-on because I included what I really wanted to say in each section.

Now it’s your turn, what did you think of Tommee Profitt and Fleurie’s little creation? Do you have any favorites on the album?