Top 10 albums of 2011 break mainstream mold

2011 was a year of phenomenal music. Different musicians from across genres produced quality work that rose to the top of the charts – even in many cases vying with their pop competitors.
With popularization of a more indie sound on mainstream radio, it proved interesting to attempt to assemble a list of what the top 10 albums could possibly be without catering to a specific genre.
This grew into a lengthy and thorough search, with much second-guessing. It is difficult to speak for a year of music, and much more for the best of a year of music without the restrictions of pop culture.
These choices represent artists who pushed the envelope and created work that, in some respects, completely changed their sound.
These choices represent artists that took chances and ran the risk of losing fans or chart status with daring lyrics. They are artists who deserve recognition for standing out and testing boundaries.
These are my picks for best albums of 2011, in no particular order, and their best tracks.

Kiss Each Other Clean
Iron & Wine
Listen to: “Black Candle”
Relaxed, colorful and full of imagery. It’s no “Boy With a Coin” or “The Sea and the Rhythm,” but definitely a triumph for folk and indie music.

The People’s Key
Bright Eyes
Listen to: “Shell Games”
A light-hearted, more poppy feel for Bright Eyes. Hard hitting lyrics still make you think.

The King of Limbs
Radiohead
Listen to: “Separator”
Pretty bizarre and abstract album, definitely an adventerous step for music veterans like Radiohead.

Angles
The Strokes
Listen to:  “Under Cover of Darkness”
An upbeat album from the Strokes, a little reminiscent of Say Anything.

Born This Way
Lady Gaga
Listen to: “Hair”
Another loud, in-your-face album from Lady Gaga. All about self acceptance, all fabulous.

Bon Iver, Bon Iver
Bon Iver
Listen to: “Perth”
Calm, relaxed album in traditional Bon Iver style, but he takes the words and music to a whole new level. This album is a tear-jerker.

Watch The Throne
Jay-Z and Kanye West
Listen to: “No Church in the Wild ft. Frank Ocean”
Jay-Z and Kanye West – need I say more? Probably. Two big names in mainstream rap collaborated to create a truly dynamic and electric album.

Ceremonials
Florence + The Machine
Listen to: “Only If For a Night”
Florence’s sophomore album proves to be a little macabre and fantastical. Haunting vocals paired with ethereal sound create an interesting listening experience.

El Camino
The Black Keys
Listen to: “Lonely Boy,”  “Little Black Submarines”
The Black Keys never fail to impress. With strong background vocals in this album, some of the tracks prove to be fantastic anthems for the year.

I’m With You
Red Hot Chili Peppers
Listen to “Look Around”
The Red Hot Chili Peppers new album brings a softer low-fi sound to a normally rambunctious band. A few tracks still capture the old RHCP feel, but this is definitely a pleasant change.

Honorable
Mentions:

21 –  Adele
The King is Dead
-The Decemberists
Zonoscope – Cut Copy
Who You Are – Jessie

Swimmers place fourth and fifth at invitational

The Bishops ended their regular season with the OWU invitational on Jan. 21.

Freshman Matthew Mahoney swimming freestyle at the OWU Invitational. He had the highest score for OWU men and won the 100 breaststroke and took 3rd place in the 200 breast stroke and 4th place in the 100 freestyle.

The women finished fourth out of five and the men finished second out of five.
While the teams did not win the meet, they were pleased with their overall performance.
“The season has been great. I am very happy with my performance and the performance of the teams this season,” said sophomore Katie Helfrich.
“The invitational was a blast and I always enjoy seeing others do well. My favorite thing to do is cheer on my teammates,” she said.
Helfrich posted the team’s best women’s individual finish, with a second place time in the 100 breaststroke and an added sixth-place finish in the 200 breaststroke.
Freshman Matthew Mahoney had the highest score for OWU men and won the 100 breaststroke in 1:00.38, placed third in the 200 breaststroke and fourth in the 100 freestyle to help the Bishops advance in the invitational.
“I have been very pleased with how my technique and endurance have developed over the course of this season under the instruction and help of my two coaches, Richard Hawes and Mike Kroll,” Mahoney said.
“Without their help and critiques of my strokes and technique it would have been extremely difficult to be where I am now with my times and ability,” Mahoney said.
“I can also confidently say that without the help of my fellow teammates who have pushed me in every practice, I would not have been able to swim the great times I achieved at the invitational.”
Some of the other standouts for the Bishops were sophomore Jennifer Erichsen who finished third in the 1000 freestyle, sophomore Melissa Ward who was third in the 100 butterfly and senior Morgan Canup who placed third in the 1-meter diving.
For the men, the 800 freestyle relay team of Mahoney, sophomore Taylor Smith, freshman Marcus Ramirez and sophomore Sean Anthony helped the team finish second.
Hawes was pleased with the performance of the team at the invitational, especially due to the tremendous amount of effort required of the swimmers.
“Swimming is a sport where the season is more or less practice for the conference championships,” said Hawes.
“Our last regular season competition in combination with the meet the night before, University of Findlay and the OWU Invite, was a test to see how (the team) swim(s) tired.  This part of the season is very difficult as it is the peak in terms of workload,” he said.
The swimmers are now preparing for the North Coast Athletic Conference meet where they will face some of their toughest competition.
“I am looking to swim the best I can and leave everything in the pool,” Mahoney said.
“I feel that I owe it to the seniors who have provided great leadership and advice over this season to do the very best I can,” he said.
The NCAC tournament swim meet will take place Feb. 15-18 in Canton.

Men’s basketball loses to Wooster, defeats Wabash

The Ohio Wesleyan men’s basketball team defeated Wabash on Wednesday night after a 3-pointer made by freshman guard Nick Felhaber in the final minute of the game.

Felhaber said the play was run to get senior guard Tim Brady the ball.

He said Brady had two Wabash players guarding him before junior guard

Andy Winters could get Brady the ball.

Senior Tim Brady drives the ball in the final minutes of the game. Brady was able to draw fouls throughout the game, making 11 of his 31 points from the free-throw line.

When Felhaber got the ball, he said he thought to himself, “Just let it fly, and don’t hesitate.”
Coach Mike Dewitt said he thought Wint

ers played well under pressure.
“Andy did a great job finding Nick when Tim wasn’t open,” Dewitt said. “Nick is a deadly 3-point shooter.”
The play came after a Wabash turnover with 23.3 second left in the game.
The Bishops started the first half quickly and had an 11 point lead through the first 10 minutes of the game.
However, Wabash went on a scoring run to bring the game back within 2 points near the end of the first half.
Winters drove to the basket and scored with just second on the clock to send the Bishops into halftime with a 32-28 lead.
Winters had 11 assists in the game.
DeWitt said he was disappointed the Bishops were not ahead by more at halftime, and they left a lot of opportunities to be ahead by more.

“Coach brought up how well we played defense for the first half of the first half and said we need to play like that for the second half if we are going to win this game,” Brady said.
“During the game, I just made sure to concentrate on what was happening in the game right now and not worry about if we win or lose, just play every play the best that I can.”
Wabash stayed in the game the whole night, not letting the Bishops get far ahead in the second half.
Brady started the second half with 7 straight points and led the Bishops in scoring with 31 points in the game.
Junior forward Marshall Morris made some significant shots in the second half, including a 3-point shot with just over 3 minutes to go to put the
Bishops up 59-55. Morris scored a total of 20 points in the game.
This win followed a loss to Wooster over the weekend by 4 points. Brady led the team in scoring with 22 points.
“We kept our confidence. We know how good we are and can be,” Brady said.
DeWitt said the experience of the close loss to Wooster made the team better prepared for the Wabash game.
“We made some mistakes late in the Wooster game and we learned from those mistake

s, which helped us win against Wabash,” Brady said.
The North Coast Athletic Conference (NCAC) now has a two-way tie for second place between Ohio Wesleyan and Wooster, with Wittenberg in the lead. Ohio Wesleyan and Wooster are both 7-3, and Wittenberg is 9-1 in conference play.
“In the NCAC this year, it’s going to come down to the last games to decide who ends up w

here in the conference rankings,” Brady said.

Ohio Wesleyan’s overall record stands at 15-4 with upcoming games at Wittenberg and at Oberlin on Wednesday and Saturday.
The Bishops play their next home game on February 8 at 8 p.m. against Wooster.

Science and art meet in photo show

Julia McLemore’s work challenges the viewer to appreciate the finer details in nature.
Her exhibit, “Beauty’s Back,” exhibited in Beeghly Library, consists of light jet prints made by shining light through flowers onto photographic paper. Her process involves no form of camera, and is made solely with light.
Though she uses traditional darkroom techniques, McLemore remarks in her artist’s stateme

nt that the images are similar to those seen in digital work.
The clarity and sharpness of the cross sections of the flowers reminds the viewer of the capabilities of traditional processes.

McLemore’s exhibit, ‘Nature’s Back,’ will be displayed at Beeghly Library until Feb 10.

“When I first studied photography, I learned to make photograms,” McLemore said. “Created in a traditional darkroom, photograms make ethereal, sometimes ghostly prints. They’re created by shining light through translucent objects onto photographic paper, without a camera or negative. They were, for me, a new way of seeing that helped me capture objects of my fascination.”
Because of McLemore’s methods, the stems, veins and fibers in the flower petals and stems are clear, showing how the flowers are built on a microscopic level. They are magnified several times in order to portray this effectively.
Her techniques are akin to the way famous photographers like Man Ray distorted the original traditional processes to achieve surreal effects.
Senior Annie Memmot said, “I think it’s interesting how the work shows how light reflects off of the petals. It’s like looking into the body of the flower because you can see the veins and inner workings – which isn’t something you usually get to see. It was a different expression of what plants are.”
On a broader scale, the images are striking and colorful on stark white backgrounds. Junior Christopher Marshall said, “The first thing I noticed was how white the backgrounds were. The images really jumped out at me when I was walking into the library. I felt they were strangely minimalist and somewhat forced because they are completely stripped of their natural context.”

McLemore wrote in her statement, “The prints are contemporary and colorful. Some are minimal against plain white backgrounds. There is almost a specimen feel to some of them, but, at the same time, the flowers remain spiritual and sensual.”
She makes it clear that though the images appear to be an almost scientific look at flower

s, she also sought to open the viewer’s eyes to the ethereal and romantic aspects of flowers, which many people recognize in their external nature but not necessarily in their biological makeup.
An Ohio native and graduate of Miami University, McLemore has showcased her work in various venues in the Columbus and central Ohio area. She is currently living and working in Charlevoix, Mich., and Columbus.

Lady Bishops lose to DePauw, remain optimist

The lady Bishops lost their basketball game 74-37, to sixth ranked DePauw on Saturday. OWU turned over the ball 24 times to the DePauw Tigers, losing 26 points.
Stacey Reed, the women’s basketball coach said she thought that DePauw jammed the Bishops into the perimeter during the first half.
At the end of the first period DePauw led the bishops 39-10.
“In the second half we only lost by (around) 10 points,” Reed said.
Freshman Laniece McRae said winning the mental game was the hardest part for her, which is probably why the Bishops did not do as well in the second period.
“I was scared to mess up,” she said.
She said the Bishops did better in the second half because they simply had nothing to lose.
Reed said she attributes the loss to the youngness of OWU’s players, DePauw exploiting OWU weaknesses, and the game going to her team’s head because of DePauw’s winning reputation.
Reed said the Bishops are continually improving.
The ladies scored 11 bench points out of 37 total Bishop points.
This was DePauw’s 16th straight win out of 17 games and OWU’s 12th loss out of 19 games.
Woman’s and men’s basketball is playing the Oberlin Yeomen, on Feb. 4 at 3 p.m. and 7 p.m., respectively.