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I've been listening to lots of music lately but haven't reviewed anything for a long time. I'm hoping to change that and get back into the swing of things. What better way to start than to listen to an old favourite and rave about it?

Circus Animals is Cold Chisel's 4th studio album, released in 1982. This album was very popular while I was in my mid-teens and I remember spending hours screaming along with this album. It's one of those albums that occupies a particular place in my life.

The album opens with the Jimmy Barnes screamer You Got Nothing I Want, featuring the entire band going full-tilt. The interplay between the instruments shows that the band are at the top of their game, and Barnes' vocal performance is searing and angry. This is followed by Ian Moss' Bow River, which has become a classic of Australian rock music - the singing and guitar playing are wonderful. The next track Forever Now is a Steve Prestwich composition and is the poppiest song on the album. It has never been my favourite song from this album, but it did well in the charts and on radio.

This album is notable because none of the singles it spawned were written by Cold Chisel's main songwriter Don Walker. His first contribution to the album appears at track 4 in the form of Taipan, which starts off at a slow simmer with a drum-led groove before building to screaming vocals and guitar playing. Houndog and Wild Colonial Boy pick up where Taipan leaves off. These 3 Walker compositions form a very strong core for Circus Animals and paint the Australian landscape in a way that is uniquely Don Walker. Overall, Walker's contributions cause this album to take a different, more rocky direction to Cold Chisel's previous album East. For that album many of his songs were poppier and more radio-friendly, including some excellent ballads. Apart from the opening to Letter To Alan (see below) none of his contributions to Circus Animals are ballads.

The next track No Good For You is interesting in that it may be Cold Chisel's only track written by Moss but sung by Barnes. This is a nice combination and places a slightly mellow pause in the album's running order. Numbers Fall is another fine Don Walker tune that picks up the pace a little.

The second last track is the classic When The War Is Over, written by drummer Steve Prestwich. This is a piano-led ballad and, apart from some great vocal harmonies interspersed throughout, it begins with smooth Moss vocals and ends with powerhouse vocals from Barnes. Add to that some beautiful guitar playing and you have one of my favourite songs. Cold Chisel used the start-with-Moss, finish-with-Barnes approach on quite a few of their ballads and it never failed to please!

Letter To Alan is the closing track on Circus Animals. It is my favourite Cold Chisel song. This Don Walker song deals with the deaths of two Cold Chisel roadies who died when the truck they were driving crashed and went up in flames. It opens as a ballad with some spacious piano playing with vocals from Barnes. Then it takes off - I don't think I've ever heard a more passionate studio recording than this one. The playing is tight, rich and heavy, and Barnes has never sung better. This song does not have choruses, it has guitar solos instead. Moss' guitar playing is supersonic - he performs 4 absolutely blistering guitar solos during this 6 minute epic. I shudder to think that some people might turn off this album after the elegance of When The War Is Over and miss the raw power of Letter To Alan altogether.

This album features Ian Moss' best guitar playing during his time with Cold Chisel. In fact, it is some of the best guitar playing I've ever heard. It is played against the enormous back-drop of the Prestwich/Small/Walker rhythm section and competes brilliantly for space out the front with some of Jimmy Barnes' best vocal performances.

Circus Animals isn't Cold Chisel's most commercially successful album. However, it is a collection of excellent performances by a great rock band at their peak. That makes this one of my favourite albums.