The Last Wave of Summer is the sixth studio album by Australian pub rock band, Cold Chisel.

When Don Walker was asked how the band decided which songs to work on next, he replied, "Psychological manipulation, sullen looks, petulance, tantrums, insane rages both faked and real, sexual coquettishness and pathological violence.

[4] Over a hundred songs were considered for the album over a 3-month rehearsal period,[5] all recorded as demos at the Sydney Opera House.

Walker, who had recently used songs for Moss's Petrolhead, Tex, Don and Charlie's Sad but True, and his own solo debut, felt he had little to offer.

"[9] The album covers topics ranging from the serious, including the Australian Aboriginal stolen generation in the Ian Moss penned "Red Sand" and judicial inequity in Don Walker's "Mr. Crown Prosecutor", to the flippant, such as the pub adventure "Yakuza Girls".

The cover photo, by Adrienne Overall, of the band seated at a service station in Wyong, New South Wales, references Edward Hopper's Nighthawks.

A rockabilly version of "Yakuza Girls" appeared on Don Walker's 2006 solo album Cutting Back.

"[10] Michael Smith from Drum Media said the album opened and closed, "with a couple of swamp rockers that remind you that the Cruel Sea and Beasts of Bourbon didn't write the book," and closed by saying the album was, "a damned fine addition to the catalogue of one of the real musical treasures of this country.