When I review a new release, I also give the album a score based on the quality of each individual track and the album as a whole. To be eligible for this list the album needs to be released in the U.S. between December 1, 2008 and November 30, 2009. The following albums have scored highest this year so far. I update these Standings every time an album (or albums) break into my Top 20.

Update: These standings haven’t been updated in a month, because, frankly, the last four weeks have been pretty disappointing for new albums. Nothing’s changed in the Top 10, but there are two new additions to the Top 20: Manchester Orchestra’s Mean Everything to Nothing and Empire of the Sun’s Walking on A Dream. Meanwhile, A.C. Newman’s Get Guilty and The Bird and the Bee’s Ray Guns Are Not Just the Future have been bumped from the list.

1. Psapp The Camel’s Back (Domino)
2. The Decemberists The Hazards of Love (Capitol)
3. M. Ward Hold Time (Merge)
4. Neko Case Middle Cyclone (Anti-)
5. Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit (Lightning Rod)
6. Franz Ferdinand Tonight: Franz Ferdinand (Domino)
7. Handsome Furs Face Control (Sub Pop)
8. P.O.S. Never Better (Rhymesayers)
9. N.A.S.A. The Spirit of Apollo (Anti-)
10. Peter Bjorn & John Living Thing (Almost Gold)
11. Heartless Bastards The Mountain (Fat Possum)
12. Lily Allen It’s Not Me, It’s You (Capitol)
13. Morrissey Years of Refusal (Attack/Lost Highway)
14. Matt & Kim Grand (Fader)
15. Beast Beast (Verve Forecast)
16. Manchester Orchestra Mean Everything to Nothing (Favorite Gentleman/Canvasback)
17. Bishop Allen Grrr… (Dead Oceans)
18. U2 No Line On the Horizon (Interscope)
19. Cursive Mama, I’m Swollen (Saddle Creek)
20. Empire of the Sun Walking on a Dream (Astralwerks/Virgin)