Super (Pet Shop Boys album)

Super is the thirteenth studio album by English synth-pop duo Pet Shop Boys.

The music originated as a demo titled "Munich", written in that city by Chris Lowe during the Progress Live tour in 2011.

Neil Tennant added the lyrics during the album writing sessions, telling a story about two students and their shared love of pop music.

[7] The music of "Twenty-something" was inspired by reggaeton, which Lowe heard at a club in Bogota, while the lyrics refer to young professionals in London.

"Inner Sanctum" celebrates an exclusive club experience; the duo imagined how it would sound in the Berlin nightclub Berghain as they worked on it.

A CD single and a digital extended play were released on 18 March, featuring two remixes of "The Pop Kids" and two new tracks, "In Bits" and "One-Hit Wonder".

The "Twenty-something" video follows a Latino man in San Diego, struggling to reintegrate into society after being incarcerated.

[31] On 22 July, "Inner Sanctum" was released on 12-inch vinyl to celebrate their sold out shows at the Royal Opera House in London.

The CD and digital download contained new remixes of "Undertow" and "Burn" by Tuff City Kids and Baba Stiltz respectively, as well as a new studio version of "Left to My Own Devices".

[51] Martyn Young of DIY gave Super 4 out of 5 stars and described it as "a record that's frequently playful, vibrant and witty and shows off all the hallmarks of classic Pet Shop Boys… 'Super' is confirmation of their position at the head of the pop pantheon with an album brimming with excitement and fizzing with energy".

[52] The 4-star AllMusic review by David Jeffries compared Super to its predecessor, Electric, stating: "The musical landscape is the same and still, it's not a sequel or a very proper follow-up.

It feels confident, loose, and free like a swaggering epilogue, like the smaller Quantum of Solace following the epic Casino Royale... while Super scores as high as the crossover-ish Electric, it's built more for the fan who puts 'Paninaro' at the top of their list, well ahead of 'West End Girls'".

[53] The album received a 7 out of 10 from The Line of Best Fit's Tom Hocknell, who wrote: "Super is a grower – a brave rejection of pipe and slippers, embracing the mythical dance floor with admirably vacuous experimentation, even if it mines the mid-nineties, when dance music grew least interesting.

with reviewer Helen Brown giving the album 3 out of 5 stars, noting: "At times, though, the bleepy, burbling "fun" gets too wacky and cheesy for even PSB's long-standing irony to uphold.

[58] A concert film from the 2018 dates was released on DVD and Blu-ray, accompanied by a live album on CD, under the title Inner Sanctum.