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 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!