Nightlife is the seventh studio album by English synth-pop duo Pet Shop Boys, released on 8 October 1999 by EMI in Germany and Japan and on 11 October 1999 by Parlophone in the UK. After the release and promotion of their previous album, Bilingual (1996), Pet Shop Boys started work with playwright Jonathan Harvey on the stage musical that eventually became Closer to Heaven; at one stage during the writing process, the musical was given the name Nightlife. Pet Shop Boys soon had an album's worth of tracks and decided to release the album Nightlife as a concept album and in order to showcase some of the songs that would eventually make it into the musical.