Rocktrospectiva: The Energetic "Super" Turns 10

Released on 1 April 2016, "Super" was the 13th., studio album by English synth-pop duo Pet Shop Boys. It was released on the band's own label, x2, through Kobalt Label Services. Super debuted at number three on the UK Albums Chart, and it was number one on Billboard's Top Dance/Electronic Albums chart, the album spawned five singles "The Pop Kids", "Twenty-Something", "Inner Sanctum", "Say It To Me", & "Undertow".

Super was the second in a trilogy of albums produced by Stuart Price, preceded by Electric (2013) and followed by Hotspot (2020). As on the first album, the music on Super was purely electronic, with no additional instruments. Pet Shop Boys wrote 25 songs between November 2014 and July 2015, working in London and, mainly, Berlin. Twelve were ultimately used on the album, with an emphasis on upbeat electronic dance tracks.

"The Pop Kids" was the first song written for Super. 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. 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. "Sad Robot World" was written after the duo were given a tour of the Wolfsburg Volkswagen Plant, where they saw cars being washed by robotic arms.

Some tracks on Super were largely instrumental, with only a few lyrics and non-traditional song structures. "Pazzo!", meaning "crazy" in Italian, was made using a collection of sounds saved from another track. "Inner Sanctum" celebrates an exclusive club experience; the duo imagined how it would sound in the Berlin nightclub Berghain as they worked on it. Tracks that were not used for Super included more conventional pop songs, as well as some dark, topical songs like "In Bits", which became a b-side of "The Pop Kids", and "The Lost Room", which was eventually released with other Super-era tracks on the Lost EP (2023).

Pet Shop Boys teased Super in January 2016 with an anonymous poster and social media campaign using the circle logo (pictured), leading to the now-defunct website What Is Super, which featured a brief music clip. On 21 January, the site went live with the album announcement, along with a video preview of the song "Inner Sanctum". Super was made available for pre-order on compact disc, vinyl, or digital download. 

The album was released with colour variations of cover. Each format was given its own fluorescent colour scheme. The different music streaming services also have their own colour schemes

Super received generally favourable reviews from music critics. Some described it as a record that's frequently playful, vibrant and witty and shows off all the hallmarks of classic Pet Shop Boys… 'Super' was confirmation of their position at the head of the pop pantheon with an album brimming with excitement and fizzing with energy". Other critics said that  Super was a grower and 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, but other stated that the album offered nothing new but definitely it was made for fans caused the brand was already established.

 

Super Track List:  

 

1. Happiness

2. The Pop Kids

3. Twenty-Something

4. Groovy

5. The Dictator Decides

6. Pazzo!

7. Inner Sanctum

8. Undertow

9. Sad Robot World

10. Say It To Me

11. Burn

12. Into Thin Air