Born from the white-hot ascent of Cold Chisel after the release of ‘East,’ and fueled by long days into nights on the road, ‘Circus Animals’ was a wide-ranging and brilliant record, moving seamlessly from the scalding blast of Jim Barnes's “You Got Nothing I Want” through to the full-tilt boogie of Ian Moss's “Bow River” and onto the tender strains of Steve Prestwich's “Forever Now”.
In between, chief songwriter Don Walker offers up some of his most shatteringly poignant lyrics on “Houndog”, “Taipan” and “Letter to Alan”. From the cover to the content, ‘Circus Animals’ was a truly Australian composition: wild, dry, reckless and mercilessly hot.