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?

Book Review: “City Of Bones” by Cassandra Clare

Hello!

I have been wanting to read this book for a long time. I remember when it first came out because I would visit the book section at Wal-Mart all the time and I was curious but not enough to consider reading it in the beginning, possibly for the fact that it is a massive book! It wasn’t until the film came out in 2013 that I found myself wanting to see what all the fuss was about, because there wasn’t a lot of happy people when it came out in theaters. I ended up loving it more than I thought, but I don’t usually watch the film version and then read the book afterwards, so I would watch it all the time until we had to get our DVRs updated and it was deleted in the aftermath.

I had hoped that it would appear on our movie channels in the last seven years but it hasn’t but I feel in my own bones that it might in the future now that I’ve finally read the book.

When I started doing my reading challenge, I had hoped that the book would be apart of Prime Reading because they usually have a wide range of fantasy books in their catalog but it wasn’t until we got KU that I found it and took full advantage of the opportunity.

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When fifteen-year-old Clary Fray heads out to the Pandemonium Club in New York City, she hardly expects to witness a murder – much less a murder committed by three teenagers covered with strange tattoos and brandishing bizarre weapons. Then the body disappears into thin air.

It’s hard to call the police when the murderers are invisible to everyone else and when there is nothing – not even a smear of blood – to show that a boy has died. Or was he a boy?

This is Clary’s first meeting with the Shadowhunters, warriors dedicated to ridding the earth of demons. It’s also her first encounter with Jace, a Shadowhunter who looks a little like an angel and acts a lot like a jerk.

Within twenty-four hours Clary is pulled into Jace’s world with a vengeance, when her mother disappears and Clary herself is attacked by a demon. But why would demons be interested in ordinary mundanes like Clary and her mother? And how did Clary suddenly get the Sight? The Shadowhunters would like to know…

taken from Goodreads.

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For someone who hasn’t watched the film in seven years and only seen a few episode trailers of the Shadowhunters show on Freeform, I had a very vivid images of all of the characters floating around in my mind as I read the book. It was a tad bit difficult to stop comparing them all together but I think it happened me lots on building everything else that was talked about in the story.

Once I began my journey I quickly realized why the book itself looked so large on BookTube, because the author made sure to describe everything for her readers to both see the amount of detail she created for her readers and understand how important it is to basically look beyond the lines, whether that meant a story itself, a person or building. I, myself, have never been good at creating lots of things within various scenes. This has always been my downfall, even in school, we had a standardized test every year and the section where it allows you to write long answers, I wouldn’t give anything to describe what is going on and I would fail that part every year. I had never seen so many words to help visualize the surroundings of what was going on with the characters.

As I was seeing the various structures in my mind, I was also enjoying the banter and bickering among the characters too. I really loved Clary and Simon’s friendship and the scene where they go to Magnus Bane’s house and the poor guy is turned into a rat, cracked me up! I feel like that was perfect because only a mundane would grab a random cup to drink at a warlock’s party! I think the perfect way to sum up how much Clary cared for Simon is shown when she discovers him missing from her backpack and they get ambushed at the vampire lair. Again, it was perfect and I ended up enjoying that whole scene the most I think.

Another character I loved more in the book than anywhere else was Hodge. He gave me serious mentor vibes, and every scene he was talking to Clary about the past or general information about a Shadowhunter’s life was so interesting. I felt as though I was Clary in those scenes and just absorbing as much information as possible, but I wasn’t planning on feeling betrayed when he stabs them in the back. I was genuine upset by it! And the entry of Valentine scared me as much as it had Clary. It probably didn’t help that I was seeing Jonathan Rhys Meyers in my head as I think he has the intimidating factor well-generated into himself. So, anytime he was in the same room with Clary, I was feeling nervous for her.

I really hope I am able to start on “City Of Ashes” soon because I want to know what happens next between Clary and Jace, especially after that big reveal at the end. I’m still fairly confused by that but I’m choosing to keep it to myself as I feel like anyone who reads this will think I just ruined the ending for them, so I’m stopping here.

Have you read “City Of Bones” by Cassandra Clare yet? If you have watched the film and show first and then starting reading the series, what were your initial thoughts about this story?

REVIEW | Shadowhunters

So I don’t know why I decided to record and watch Freeform’s Shadowhunters but I did. In some ways, after I found out they were coming out with a TV show inspired by Cassandra Clare’s series called The Mortal Instruments. I was mad at myself because I’ve been meaning to read the series since I watched the movie, but I haven’t been able to. Anyways, if you haven’t read the books, watched the film and TV show versions but thinking about it, you might want to take a rain check reading this post! Because there will be spoilers and comparisons discussed below!

First let’s talk about the movie!

I actually loved The Mortal Instruments: City Of Bones a lot! I have a love/hate relationship with movies being inspired by books I’ve never read especially if they’re part of the supernatural kind of genre. I remember watching the film wondering more about Jocelyn (Lena Headley) and Valentine’s (Jonathon Rhys Meyers) world. Where did they originate? You know a backstory to get familiar with to see what we’re dealing with beforehand, however in a way I think of how Clary (Lily Collins) found out about her mother and Jace (Jamie Campbell Bower) and everything about shadowhunters, runes, etc was all needed to start too.

I was very confused about everything that was in the film the first time I watched it, but the more I watched and paid attention to the little details of the story and characters the more I liked it. I’ve never watched a film that had demons in at night. This film came out in 2013, I was 23 and still not have watched anything with demons in it at night. I was trying to finish and it got to the part where Clary and Jace were visiting the neighbor below their apartment to see if she knew anything weird about her mom’s past and Dorothea (C.C.H. Pounder) turned into this disgusting demon. It was like 8pm and I was just silently freaking out underneath my covers. It mustn’t been too scary since I watched the whole damn thing in one setting!

Let’s talk about the first episode now!

Okay, I don’t know what Clary’s hair in the book but can I say how annoying and orange this girl’s hair is?!?! Gosh, I’m starting to sound like my old art teacher!  Other than that, she’s not bad. There are some scenes where I thought were too much and yet some were so good that I actually felt her emotion. Jace is going to be a character that’s going to drive me nuts. The “new” Clary Fray is played by Katherine McNamara and Jace Wayland is played by Dominic Sherwood. I already don’t like the chemistry between these two. I like the new layout of the characters cover story this time around. Clary is applying for colleges for art school and Luke is a police officer. Despite the fact the beginning shows Jocelyn trying to call Luke, there’s no real connection between them in front of the audience.

Anyways, I recorded the first episode four days after it premiered. Despite my opinions on the actors, I was very pleased with the ending result. The whole episode is an hour long, and even though I was skipping through my commercials to see what would happen next, there wasn’t anything that would grab at me. I do what to see what happens in this week, so I’ve decided to tape it because it was on the same time as Agent Carter.  I’m still trying to get through the second episode right now!

All right time for some notes:

• I still prefer Jamie Campbell Bower, Jonathon Rhys Meyers, and Robert Sheehan as Jace, Valentine and Simon.
• The club scene was better in the movie, especially the way everybody was dressed. Dark colors and goth vibes. Heavy metal sound, my kind of nightclub honestly!
• Clary and Simon’s friendship felt more real in the film, adding a third into their scenes was a bad choice.
• As for the special effects, they looked more realistic in the film. They’re just awful on the show! Those spheres look too Star Wars like.
• The demons are scary as hell on both, but worse on the show!
• The first episode seemed to rushed in the beginning, it’s an hour show, you can take your time and leave certain stuff off, especially if you’ve already seen it in the movie!
• Is Luke a demon in the show?
• This new Valentine reminds of Hugh Jackman when he shaved his head for the film Pan. 

Reminder: Please don’t rip me apart with this review, I mean it’s all my opinion! If they would have kept it in film format we wouldn’t be having this bit right now. So what are your thoughts? What did you like or didn’t like about the first episode? 

 

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