In our humble opinion, these twenty five albums represent the best new music that 2009 had to offer.

Forget the best of the decade - 2009 had plenty of great music to call its own and deserves its own party. Here's the first instalment of our Top 50 albums list.

Every December since 2002, No Ripcord has taken pride in publishing a Top Fifty Albums list, which draws on the collected thoughts of our writing team.This year we decided to offer you the chance to take part in the end of year shenanigans.

As promised earlier in the week, here are the 2008 album lists from our individual writers. The majority of these were used to compile our overall list, however it is worth noting a few were submitted (or changed) after the deadline, so those trying to work out the validity of our final 50 will struggle to make these fit!

Some critics would suggest that 2008 has been a barren year for exciting new music but we couldn't disagree more: our Top 50 albums list suggests it was as strong a year as any.

2008 seems to have passed us by in a blur and we’re at a loss to explain why. Some critics would suggest it’s because this has been a barren year for exciting new music but we couldn't disagree more: our Top 50 albums list suggests 2008 was as strong a year as any.

So, you've read the first part of our feature and you're hopefully thinking "so far, so good but what's #1". If so, you've come to the right place.

It's finally here. We've fiddled with our formulae on Excel and whittled the entire musical output of 2007 down to fifty great albums.

Here it is. Part two of our feature. The top 25 albums of the year. The best new music in 2006.

Contrary to popular myth, 2006 was not a barren, musical wasteland. We've got the proof right here in the form of part one of our end of year extravaganza.