Jake Shears' Last Man Dancing invites you to let it all go and dance

Five years on from 2018’s self-titled Jake Shears, and the former Scissor Sisters frontman still has the band in his veins. Where Jake Shears was a revisit to the camp, whimsical and rock’n’roll of his past, Last Man Dancing takes a step forward into the disco lights that have been following Shears around for his nearly 20-year career in the limelight.

It’s a story in two parts, and we see Shears take on two distinct ideas for this project. The first half is the party, filled with radio-ready tracks to get you moving to the slick disco production. The shrill tones of Kylie Minogue are a welcome appearance on the down-and-dirty “Voices,” and even 2021’s “Do The Television” doesn’t feel out of place or dated in the track list. “Really Big Deal” is a standout, with hand claps loud enough to get you joining in, and an infectious attitude to boot. It’s like Shears is determined to make sure you don’t stop moving until he’s wiped out.

Part two is the afters, where the acoustic instrumentation is swapped out for deeper electronic sounds, and each song blends seamlessly into the next as though it’s being mixed by a DJ at the house party. As Shears is persistent to keep going well into the night, it’s here that lyrical structures are traded in for more abstract instrumentals (“8 Ball”), and dance music trailblazers like Big Freedia make an appearance (“Doses”). The exception to this is “Devil Came Down The Dancefloor” – a song that wouldn’t be out of place on the Freemasons’ Unmixed – but as with the first half, the curation of sounds and track listing ensures it doesn’t feel out of place for one second.

What’s missing, it seems, is the sombre slow song that Shears has done so well on all his albums past. No more are we treated to a “Return To Oz”-esque track, as Last Man Dancing’s mission, clearly, is to keep the party going. The lyrical themes throughout the first half lend itself to this, with Shears saying “I’m gonna be the last man dancing / I’ll be carrying on even when the party’s gone” on title-track “Last Man Dancing,” and “I used to be in love / but now I’m out dancing like a better man in white satin gloves” on “I Used To Be In Love.” It’s clear that this record is Shears running away from his problems, if only for a night, and what a night it is.

“One more for the road,” he cries on opening track “Too Much Music,” predicting exactly what you’ll be saying when you reach the end of the record. Last Man Dancing is a party to escape to when life gets a little bit too much, and it delivers on its mission statement with abundance.