Liam Cromar - 8/31/2010

You could be excused for thinking that this is your typical late-career release of a sad has-been artist desperately trying to cling on to some semblance of relevance by surrounding himself with a bevy of famous names. You'd also be wrong. Last Man Standing, while it's not without its low points, is worth much more than a cursory listen.

For a start, this isn't a pretentious, overblown album, full of overwrought, moody, end-of-life folk songs. Nor is it a radically new direction for the ivory-thumper. No, it's a joyful run through a good number (21!) of familiar and not-so-familiar numbers in traditional rock 'n' roll style. It doesn't take itself too seriously (after all, who else but Jerry Lee would dare to open with such a crazy cover of Led Zeppelin's 'Rock And Roll' with Jimmy Page in the studio at the time?), and yet through it all, one gets the impression that Jerry Lee Lewis is taking the opportunity to have a slightly wry look and laugh at the past antics of his 60-plus years of music.

One could go on to list some of the big names that appear on the record to stimulate interest in the album, but that would really be an insult to JLL, and I'm not going to: the Killer still knocks 'em dead.