The competition for this year’s J Award is hotting up. With the winner due to be announced on December 1, it’s a neck and neck race for Australian Album of the Year...Who will come out on top?

Last year the inaugural J Award went to rockers Wolfmother and we’ve all witnessed how successful they have become. Bets are on as to who will take out this year’s top honours…

Twelve albums have been nominated throughout the year on triple j for the 2006 Award and range from the nation’s best sounds in roots, hip hop, indie, pop and pure rock. Caroline Tran, triple j’s resident Aussie music expert and host of weeknight Australian music show Home & Hosed, comments that the entrants offer “an incredible palette of sounds that have knocked our socks off in the Australian music scene this year.”

The final list of 2006 J AWARD nominees:

Augie March - Moo, You Bloody Choir
Blue King Brown - Stand Up
Bob Evans - Suburban Songbook
Dan Kelly and the Alpha Males - Drowning In the Fountain Of Youth
Gotye – Like Drawing Blood
The Grates – Gravity Won’t Get You High
Hilltop Hoods – The Hard Road
The Living End – State of Emergency
 Macromantics – Moments in Movement 
Sarah Blasko - What the Sea Wants, The Sea Will Have
The Sleepy Jackson – Personality (One Was A Spider, One Was A Bird) 
Sub Audible Hum - In Time For Spring, On Came The Snow

Catch all the drama of the awards when Robbie Buck crosses live to the ceremony at 3pm on triple j.