Sigur Rós top of Irish charts

An underground favourite for years with a devoted following, Sigur Ros has grown into an act with real stamina, now rewarded with a podium place within just four days of the album release.

The Icelandic band has been around since the early '90s, but sixth studio album Valtari could well be their biggest success yet. They’ve featured in the soundtracks of a litany of films and TV shows, not least in Vanilla Sky, Queer As Folk and CSI.

Having collaborated with Radiohead in 2003 the band are occasionally pidgeonholed in the same genre, but differ on many points musically with the Oxford artists. The Icelandic afficionados have an established record of wordplay, but as the vast majority of their fans seem to be English language speakers, it largely passes anyone but the home audience by.

It is not unreasonable to expect a slew of stunning singles to come out of Valtari, so chart success may yet again be on the horizon from the best thing to come out of Iceland since Bjork and the invention of hot tubs.