List Season and Award Season. Both as beautiful as each other, and both coming in as subtly as a kick in the teeth (just like summer has this year already).

This week ARIA announced all the nominees for the 2015 ARIA Awards, with five of the year’s finest Aussie albums nominated for the coveted Album Of The Year award. We’ve run through all the nominees to fill you in on any of the contenders you’ve missed, and opened up the comment section so you can let us know who shouldreallywin.

Courtney Barnett – Sometimes I Sit And Think, And Sometimes I Just Sit

READ our review here

2015 is Courtney Barnett’s year. After two strong EPs, the Melbourne slacker released a debut album that was critically acclaimed around the world.

Barnett is nominated for eight ARIAs at this year’s ceremony, and we wouldn’t be surprised if she walks away with Album Of The Year. She’s already won the ARIA for Best Cover Art, and no doubt there are more coming.

Sometimes I Sit And Think, And Sometimes I Just Sit is an instant classic. It’s cemented Barnett as the real deal and showcased her songwriting across 11 tracks. From the intense (‘Pedestrian At Best’) to the sweet (‘Depreston’), it’s just a great bloody album, and the world is taking notice.

INTERVIEW: We talked to Barnett about the success of her debut album

Flight Facilities – Down To Earth

Down To Earth is another debut album nominated for the big prize. Flight Facilities are sitting on the other side of the scale as underdogs, but this year it’s hard to rule anything out.

The Sydney duo have been around since 2009, and after a handful of great singles such as ‘Foreign Language’, they have finally come together with a full record. Down To Earth is part album, mixtape and DJ set. There’s a great flow through the entire collection, but it also goes down many different paths. There’s also a smorgasbord of special guests including Emma Louise, Kylie Minogue and Reggie Watts.

Hermitude – Dark Night Sweet Light

People often say the year Aussie hip hop arrived in the mainstream was 2006. At the ARIA Awards that year, the Hilltop Hoods were nominated for an unprecedented five awards, taking out two of them with Best Independent Release and Best Urban Album. Nearly a decade on, electronic group Hermitude, part of hip hop collective Elefant Traks, are nominated for seven awards, including Album Of The Year.

The fifthalbum from Hermitude was a celebration of 15 years of hard work, going from a pair of mates hanging out in the Blue Mountains to releasing an album that hit number one on the ARIA charts, and selling out shows at the Enmore and around Australia.

Comparing Hermitude to Hilltop Hoods may be a bit of a stretch, but the hip hop influence is undoubtedly there, and it sits well next to the R&B and electro-soul sounds these guys are so good at cooking up.

WATCH: Our exclusive chat with Hermitude in their home studio:

Tame Impala – Currents

READ our review here

Tame Impala took out the top gong (or pointy pyramid thing) last year for their album Lonerism and they’re back this time around with Currents. While the 2014 Album Of The Year represented a band climbing to the top of alternative music, Lonerism was not exactly a departure, but an expansion. Kevin Parker fully indulges his deep love for pop music, and the guitars are swapped for synths.

Tame Impala are nominated for six awards all up this year, but considering the competition, it would be surprising to see lightning strike twice here. Parker has already picked up two of the early announced ARIA Awards this year, for Producer and Engineer of the Year.

Vance Joy – Dream Your Life Away

READ our review here

In 2013 Vance Joy released his debut EP, which featured the song ‘Riptide’. The Melbourne singer-songwriter went from local boy to Australian indie darling as the song took out the number one spot in triple j’s Hottest 100, and was certified triple platinum by ARIA.

Joy had all the pressure artists usually face on their ‘difficult second album’ when he released his first,Dream Your Life Away, and the seven ARIA nominations show he succeeded and then some.

Joy is the ‘mainstream’ choice for the award this year. More than any other nominee he’s involved with the Top 40 scene; supporting Taylor Swift around North America and playing the EMAs and American Idol.

Dream Your Life Away is still an album that focuses on those indie-folk sounds that brought him to the dance, though. ‘Riptide’ is the centrepiece of the album, but songs such as ‘Georgia’ and ‘Fire And The Flood’ are engaging and easy to listen to at the same time.

Who deserves to take out the Album Of The Year award this year? Let us know in the comments below.

The 2015 ARIA Awards take place at The Star Event Centre on Thursday November 26. The ceremony will be broadcast on Channel Ten. Tickets to the event are available through Ticketek.

Get unlimited access to the coverage that shapes our culture.
to Rolling Stone magazine
to Rolling Stone magazine