‘Sleepwalkingthetightrope’ is the band’s last effort before calling it a day. Thank goodness they’ve managed to end on a high. Circus Act remind me a little of The Misnomer in the way they write their songs; they don’t tend to stick to the conventional methods and they sing and write in odd keys with time changes all over the shop, yet each song is still horrendously catchy. ‘In The Absence Of Reason’, for example, is a pop song in a rock song’s body, a massive chorus breaking out of a box wrapped up in choppy guitars and vocal melodies.
That song is typical of this album as a whole. The three-way vocal attack adds an extra dimension, making tracks like ‘A Swing And A Miss’ and ‘Something Worth Aiming For’ essential listening. If it ends up that Circus Act end with these recordings, at least they’ve left us with one of the best UK albums of the year.