Scissor Sisters man Jake Shears has shared his new single Last Man Dancing, the title track from his much-anticipated sophomore solo album which drops on 2nd June. Shears will take Last Man Dancing out on the road this summer with an intimate, quickly-sold out run of UK shows, international festivals including Glastonbury and Mighty Hoopla, plus in-store events for week of release also now confirmed.
A universal message told in novelistic detail, Last Man Dancing is a reminder to keep moving whatever life throws at you. Portraying a cast of misfits alone (but together) in a bar scene, the track’s soaring, Abba-esque melody is partnered with a moving lyric – “finally I’m feeling / something like alive / I don’t care if it’s happening / at quarter past five” – that has the immediate feel of another Jake Shears classic. The video brings the vibrant world of the album artwork to life; a chaotic house party in which the 44-year-old earns his trophy not just as the ‘Last Man Dancing’, but also as one of this generation’s most influential pop stars.
Last Man Dancing was introduced in irresistible style earlier this year with the redemptive disco groove of Too Much Music, and followed by recent single I Used To Be In Love (a symphonic blast of house, hedonism, and finding yourself right at home in a crowd of strangers). The record was conceived between the US, Portugal, and London – where Jake relocated from his New Orleans home during the pandemic – alongside the sort of head-turning guestlist that, in Shears’ cross-pollinating universe, also makes total sense: from Amber Martin and Boys Noize to Big Freedia, Kylie Minogue, and cameos from Jane Fonda and Iggy Pop.
Check out the Lynne Page-directed video for Last Man Standing below:
The results already sound like the record Shears was born to make – taking a lifelong affair with club culture towards new heights (and on its second half, almost dystopian depths). In a polymathic career which variously takes in multi-million global album sales, Brits, Ivor Novellos, an acclaimed memoir, a Broadway show, plus his Olivier-Award-winning musical Tammy Faye, Shears’ pull to keep moving has remained a constant: whether in the heat of the dance floor, or in creating cathartic and unconventional art. As the man himself puts it: “while not everyone might make it to the end, it’s the last ones dancing who are rewarded with the most magical moments.”
With work that still speaks evenly to the margins and the masses, Jake Shears’ new solo album will continue a whirlwind of activity for the Scissor Sisters’ frontman. Recent appearances range from Radio 2’s Piano Rooms (where he was joined by Pet Shop Boys frontman Neil Tennant and the BBC Concert Orchestra) and Saturday Night Takeaway to a surprise appearance at queer London nightclub House Of Trash, the Aladdin Sane tribute at London’s Southbank Centre, and an arena tour with Duran Duran.
Upcoming UK live dates:
MAY
30th – SWG3 Warehouse, Glasgow
JUNE
1st – Concorde 2, Brighton
2nd – Village Underground, London
4th – Mighty Hoopla Festival, London
5th – Rough Trade East, London (In Conversation & Signing)
6th – Glastonbury Festival, Somerset
28th – Lytham Festival, Lytham
JULY
8th – Pride, Bristol
23rd – Splendour Festival, Nottingham
AUGUST
25th – Lost Village Festival, Lincolnshire (DJ Set)
27th – Pride, Manchester
Live photography of Jake Shears by Kalpesh Patel @ The O2 Arena, London
