Just when you thought you'd had enough of end-of-year lists, there comes another, more democratic, and arguably interesting one. Yep, it's that time of the year (the beginning of it) where our users/readers/forum members get polled on their favourite albums of the year, ending in the Drowned in Sound User's Poll of 2009! In 2010!

The process is entirely independent and separate of the editorial side of things, and this year has been brilliantly compiled by ring-tailed-lemur, who collected, counted, counted some more and then collated all of your votes into a nice spreadsheet.

Everyone was asked to pick their Top 5 albums of 2009, with their first choice getting five points, second choice four...and so on. Simple maths, really. If you didn't specify an order, all albums were given three points.

Here's what the list turned out like, with Animal Collective topping it with 151 points, Wild Beasts taking the silver medal with 111, and The XX in third with a very close 108 points.

1. Animal Collective - Merriweather Post Pavilion
2. Wild Beasts - Two Dancers
3. The XX - XX
4. Grizzly Bear - Veckatimest
5. Future of the Left - Travels With Myself And Another
6. The Horrors - Primary Colours
7. Fuck Buttons - Tarot Sport
8. Phoenix - Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix
9. The Antlers - Hospice
10. Fever Ray - Fever Ray
11. The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart - The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart
12. Dirty Projectors - Bitte Orca
13. Yeah Yeah Yeahs - It's Blitz!
14. Japandroids - Post Nothing
15. Mew - No More Stories...
16. Pissed Jeans - King Of Jeans
17. Sunn O))) - Monoliths & Dimensions
18. The Twilight Sad - Forget The Night Ahead
19. Bat For Lashes - Two Suns
20. HEALTH - Get Color
21. St Vincent - Actor
22. Sunset Rubdown - Dragonslayer
23. Bill Callahan - Sometimes I Wish We Were An Eagle
24. Atlas Sound - Logos
25. Blue Roses - Blue Roses
26. The Phantom Band - Checkmate Savage
27. Camera Obscura - My Maundlin Career
28. Micachu - Jewellery
29. Lets Wrestle - In the Court of the Wrestling Let's
30. Manic Street Preachers - Journal For Plague Lovers
31. worriedaboutsatan - Arrivals
32. Mastodon - Crack the Skye
33. Kong - Snake Magnet
34. Cymbals Eat Guitars - Why There Are Mountains
35. Slow Club - Yeah, So
36. The Decemberists - The Hazards Of Love
37. Grammatics - Grammatics
38. Moderat - Moderat
39. The Arctic Monkeys - Humbug
40. The Veils - Sun Gangs
41. Cold Cave - Love Comes Close
42. Passion Pit - Manners
43. Raekwon - Only Built For Cuban Lynx II
44. Handsome Furs - Face Control
45. Lightning Bolt - Earthly Delights
46. Bibio - Ambievelance Avenue
47. Oneida - Rated O
48. Au Revoir Simone - Still Night/Still Light
49. Emmy The Great - First Love
50. The Maccabees - Wall Of Arms

Pretty well reflective, of the website as a whole, I think.

Once again, many thanks to ringtailedlemur, and everyone who voted in this, and everyone who made the DiS community such a magical (and sometimes WTF) place in 2009. I don't see things changing that much.

Click here to discuss the results, and argue 'til your black heart is content.