02 Feb Jake Shears Announces New Music & UK Headline Shows
Jake Shears is back today with the incredible new single ‘Too Much Music’ – the first taste of upcoming album Last Man Dancing, which will be released on his new home of Mute on 2 June 2023. Having already been confirmed for this year’s Mighty Hoopla, Shears will launch Last Man Dancing alongside three intimate UK headline shows, including Village Underground on release day.
One of modern pop’s true trailblazers, ‘Too Much Music’ is an instant Jake Shears anthem that feels as much a fresh start as it does a return to self. An experimental mix of glam rock overture, disco groove and soulful harmony, it asks why you’d ever stand still in life, when “there can never be too much music for me.” Directed by Callum Macdiarmid, the stunning ‘Too Much Music’ video sees Shears in suitably subversive form, with cinematic and unexpected results.
Watch the video here: https://youtu.be/x7OFptjex0Y
‘Too Much Music’ is an exhilarating introduction to Jake Shears’ new album, Last Man Dancing. Recorded between the US, Portugal and London – where he relocated from his New Orleans home during the pandemic – the project features production from the likes of Boys Noize (Kelis, Skrillex), Vaughn Oliver (Latto’s ‘Big Energy’) and includes the sort of head-turning party guestlist that, in Shears’ universe, somehow make total sense: Kylie Minogue, Big Freedia and Amber Martin all feature, with a cameo from Jane Fonda and some timeless words of wisdom from Iggy Pop. Last Man Dancing is full of incandescent nods to fellow dance music pioneers – a Sylvester falsetto here, a Patrick Cowley cowbell there, and a Berghain pulse – all modernised, personalised and right at home in 2023. Hedonistic, poignant, and surreal, Jake Shears has now turned a lifelong love-affair with club culture into his most ambitious material to date.
In a career that has spanned multi-million global album sales, Brits, Ivor Novellos, Grammy award nominations and arena tours, Jake Shears has helped shift the musical landscape as we now know it. Just last year, Scissor Sisters’ debut album was named the UK’s twelfth biggest-selling debut LP of all time: they forged a new pathway in pop culture, which has allowed a new generation of unapologetic, occasionally outrageous and brilliantly uncompromising pop stars to follow. A born entertainer, Jake himself has continued to shape-shift: he has not only written an acclaimed memoir (‘Boys Keep Swinging’), performed on Broadway (returning for a special appearance of ‘Kinky Boots’ at the Hollywood Bowl last summer), but also recently opened a musical in London to rave reviews (‘Tammy Faye, written alongside Elton John and British playwright James Graham). That pull towards the dancefloor, however, has remained a constant throughout Shears’ unorthodox career, resulting in a record that serves both as a spiritual homecoming and a blast of escapism.
In Jake’s own words, “Last Man Dancing is my ultimate house party. Presented in two distinct halves, it chronicles a night’s journey from sing-along dance anthems into the deeper, darker corners of my living room. Electro-pop, tech-house, poppers-fueled disco, it’s MY afters and YOU just got the address. We can be as loud and late as we want… and while not everyone might make it to the end, it’s the last ones dancing who are rewarded with the most magical moments of the evening.”
With work that still speaks evenly to the margins and the masses, 2023 marks Jake Shears’ welcome return to Pop: the first on the floor, and the self-confessed Last Man Dancing.
JAKE SHEARS LIVE
30 May – Glasgow || SWG3 Warehouse
1 June – Brighton || Concorde 2
2 June – London || Village Underground
4 June – London || Mighty Hoopla
Last Man Dancing is available to pre-order on CD, Coloured Vinyl, Cassette and Digitally now via https://mute.ffm.to/jakeshears. Tickets for Jake Shears’ album launch shows go on general sale on 10 February, with pre-sale available from 8 February for those pre-ordering the album.
