Cake or Death (2007)

Stricken by cancer, the country-psych-pop maverick who penned 1966's ''These Boots Are Made for Walkin''' has said Cake or Death is his last album. If so, it's a fiery exit. Dry-aged but strong, Lee Hazlewood's baritone rings out on topical songs like ''Baghdad Knights,'' and his lyrics brim with jagged one-liners (''You'll think she's an altar/You'll get down on your knees,'' he deadpans in ''Sacrifice''). Wit gives way to poetry, though, on the lush ''T.O.M. (The Old Man),'' a meditation on mortality that resonates in the heart.