Keith Urban just released “Superman,” one of the songs on his upcoming The Speed of Now Part 1 album, which will be released on September 18. Keith wrote the uptempo tune with Craig Wiseman, along with the songwriting and production trio, Captain Cuts.

“I did a writing retreat here in Nashville, and I particularly wanted to put together people I’d written with, but hadn’t written with together,” Keith explained to Variety. “There’s this three-man collective from Los Angeles called Captain Cuts that I wrote a song with on the Graffiti U album, and they bring this kind of frat-house, loose, go-at-anything vibe. It’s really exciting to be around. And Craig Wiseman, a Nashville writer who I really, really love, comes at things from a different vibe again. I put Captain Cuts, Craig Wiseman and myself in a room, and ‘Superman’ was the result of that first-day collaboration.”

“Superman,” which says in part, “When I was with you, baby, I was Superman / Yeah, we were sky high, there was nothing better / When I was with you, grabbin’ that live wire / Where we were Johnny and June in a ring of fire / Now you’re caught up in my head like a melody / Of the sweetest summer song that we used to sing,” might seem like an unlikely song to release while much of the world is still shut down because of the coronavirus pandemic. But for Keith, it was the perfect time to release something lively.

“Well, it’s interesting, because the guy in the song (is recalling) a different time, when it was better,” Keith explained. “The song opens up with ‘Lately I’ve been living in a world that’s black and white / Ever since you left all the colors just drained out of my life.’ So I think that’s a feeling a lot of people relate to, pretty clearly. And then suddenly remembering this time in life that was way more exciting, dangerous, adventurous, exhilarating — and this particular girl in this time where this guy felt like Superman when he was with her.”

The video for “Superman” was inspired, at least in part, by the video for “Take On Me” by A-ha, which was released in 1984.

“I was talking with Ben Dalgleish, who’s this really great creative designing artist in my world who put together our whole Vegas show that we did,” Keith recalled. “We were talking about the A-ha ‘Take on Me’ video, and he said, ‘Well, what about a flipbook video?’ He hooked me up with a guy called Andymation, who has a really popular channel on YouTube, and we brought him to start work on the concept.

“I did some filming here in Nashville over at our warehouse,” Keith added.” We have a warehouse where we store all our equipment and we have a big green-screen set-up there, so we shot all of my performance there.”

Download or stream “Superman” here.