This actually came up yesterday as a (particularly easy) question at a pub quiz (we won, thanks for asking) but two artists that can only be described as pop giants both released new albums this week, and both of them are called Circus. Yep, the mighty Take That and that unpredictable Britney Spears have come up with the same name for their latest masterpieces and this fact has made quite a splash in the UK press.

On the face of it this has little to do with Icelandic music, but I mention it for two reasons. Firstly, just to see what happens to the site stats if I mention Britney Spears, especially if I then happen to use words like naked in the same sentence! But more importantly, to point out the third, and let's face it superior, album of that name released this year. Back in October, live favourites Ultra Mega Technobandið Stefán unleashed the recorded version of their on-stage mayhem and it was indeed called, "Circus". The album doesn't quite recreate the sweat-drenched experience of a live show, but it is still a fine piece of up-tempo bleepery and deserving of another mention on here – if only to take some spotlight off the other two!

So having established what the best album of the year called Circus is, I must cast my net wider and consider the best albums of 2008 whatever they happen to be called. This will take much thought and brain-straining but the results will be here before 2009 I promise. In the meantime I am collecting all the music mags and reading their takes on the year. Actually, that's not quite true, I am buying them all but I'm so far steadfastly refusing to open them and peek inside. The reviews of the year are a very important and serious affair(!), so I am denying myself the pleasure – for now. I'll get to it, and I'm hoping to see a strong Icelandic contingent…

One way to guarantee a strong Icelandic presence in the best albums list is to look at results from Iceland (or stick around here). A new awards called the Kraumur awards has announced it's first set of results, six albums have receieved the honour of being named 'Icelandic albums of the year',

Agent Fresco – "Lightbulb Universe"
FM Belfast – "How to Make Friends"
Hugi Guðmundsson – "Apocrypha"
Ísafold – “All Sounds to "Silence Come"
Mammút – "Karkari"
Retro Stefson – "Montana"

For more details, and the full list of nominees pelase go here.