Dylan's Deep Dives

The Best Albums of 2023 By Dylan Barbee My favorite, most replayed albums of 2023. A year where newcomers shined, creators innovated and veterans remained at the top.  10. FORWARD - Jordan Ward Courtesy of Spotify Jordan Ward is an artist I discovered in 2019 when his songs “Okok (Hibachi)” and “Moveon” piqued my interest on his debut album Valley Hopefuls. Although his calm, simplistic and West Coast approach to many of his songs was impressive, it was clear on Valley Hopefuls that Ward still had a long way to go when it came to improving his voice and cadence. His 2023 release FORWARD serves as a more flourished piece of music with more mature dialogues about the importance of loyalty to one’s family on “FAMJAM4000”, persisting through dangerous neighborhoods on “THINK TWICE” and the desire for privacy when famous on “WHITE CROCS” featuring Ryan Trey. These messages are mixed with a groovy and upbeat production scheme, giving color and personality to Ward’s artistic character and t

The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes Review: A Power-Hungry Prequel By Dylan Barbee Courtesy of @thehungergames on Instagram  To what lengths must a person or government go to control human nature’s darkest impulses? The idea of “humanity undressed,” as Dr. Gaul terrifyingly puts it, is at the core of dystopia’s latest box office hit “The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes” and Suzanne Collin’s 2020 novel of the same name. The film masterfully sends viewers to a pre-Katniss Panem, beginning in the Dark Days and ending with a young future-President Snow beginning his rise towards becoming the fascist president we see in the original Hunger Games trilogy.  The film focuses on the 10th Hunger Games, during which The Capitol of Panem is visibly reconstructing its city's skyscrapers and monuments ten years after the end of the Dark Days, the culmination of a war that began when a rebellion erupted against Panem’s government. The opening scene of “Ballad of