Ladies and Gentlemen, after a shortlist of 103 albums, I present to you my Top 50 favourite long players of 2009.

In part 1 today, I present to you Numbers 50 through to 41. Enjoy…

Whilst there are moments on Fixin’ To Thrill (Dragonette’s sophomore follow-up to 2007’s debut Galore) which almost mirror musical happenings from their debut (see “Don’t Be Funny”, a slightly inferior version to “True Believer”), there are some honest-to-god pop gems on here that make this their best body of work yet. Tracks such as the hilbilly electro-rock of “Gone Too Far” and the Goldfrapp homaging “Easy” leave the strongest of impressions.

Lady GaGa wasn’t the only person in 2009 to release an 8-track album. Stuart Price has, once again, delivered the goods on this – the greatest Zoot Woman production yet. Cleverly combining everything Price has learnt over the last four years about pop music into this record, it’s any wonder why it stands a cut above other Zoot works. Album opener ‘Just A Friend Of Mine’ is a spikey (but heartbreaking) ode to unrequited love, whilst record highlight ‘Lonely By Your Side’, in a decent world, would have been number one for weeks. Vocally speaking, Adam Blake can do no wrong here; heavily Bowie-inspired ‘More Than Ever’ shows little hints of Sting creeping through Blake’s voice. This is the most cohesive and substantial Zoot Woman record to date, and perhaps it’s partly due to the production-prowess of Price. There are so many good pop moments on here, but some seriously inspiring electronica too. Everyone wins.

Accessible and overly-enjoyable songs like “Fifteen”, ace single “Love Story” and “You Belong With Me” soundtrack the thoughts of a teenager in messy-love  and, at time, soundtracked my own travels through 2009. This is Swift’s second album (which was actually released in 2008), with 2009 being the year which propelled the Pensylvania-born 20 year old into the kind of situations where she was being praised by Beyonce, and tortured by Kanye West.

La Roux’s debut album is a far-cry from being the record to save pop music that so many in the media and the blogging community have made it out to be. It’s good, but far from being perfect and it infact suffers from “filler-mode”; there’s also that voice, which tends to drive me nuts after 25 minutes of listening. Odd single choices have tainted this release that little bit more for me (”Tigerlily” and “Colourless Colour” overlooked? An outrage), but singles “Quicksand” and “In For The Kill” still pack one quiff of a powerful pop-punch. (Read my original review here.)

The whole record is actually quite brilliant in that “what is this, 1993?” kind of way; 2008 X-Factor contestants JLS’ debut album is a joyous return to the days when there was a fine-line between boybands making pop and rnb music. “Beat Again” and “Kickstart” are the obvious corkers, with ballad “Close To You” being the better of the slower numbers.

Okay, so more of an EP than an album, but a worthy addition to the list nonetheless. Aside from the truly magnificent Viva La Vida/Domino Dancing mash-up (of sorts), there’s also the brilliant “My Girl”, and a souped-up version of “It Doesn’t Often Snow At Christmas” which makes this one of the better PSB’s releases overall. Robbie at ChartRigger recently compiled a list of his favourite PSB releases this last decade; clicky clicky to have a read.

If Stuart Price or Calvin Harris were to team up with Daft Punk, DatA’s Skywriter is perhaps the kind of record you’d get. Male vocals over upfront synths and chord whirls, it is however all about the title track, “Skywriter”, which has so much pop-crossover potential I’m incredibly surprised it’s not bigger than it is.

I wasn’t the biggest fan of  Just Jack’s first two albums when they were released, and if it weren’t for the magnificent xolondon sending me in the direction of lead single “Embers”, I may not bothered with this, his third. “Embers” is gorgeously orchestrated with its double-hand-claps and violently stunning string section, whilst Electroglam even makes an appearance via the bonkers “Goth In The Disco”.

From start to finish, this is all kinds of amazing, and not only for the mere fact that, 27 years on, they’re still going strong (ish). “Love Comes”, Viva’s first single, is a slice of such strong 1990’s eurotrance, the likes of Alexia and Whigfield would be quite pleased someone’s carrying their torch of euro-flavour into the next decade. The ‘international’ “Voyage Voyage” is magnifique, whilst their cover of iio’s “Rapture” is – surprisingly – tops.

Kylie’s getting better at these fan releases than The Queen of Fan Releases and fellow sister, Dannii, isn’t she?!

[Numbers 40 - 31: Tomorrow...]