U2 will release their 16th studio album, Carnaval de Luz, on Friday, November 13. Marking the band’s first album of new material in nine years, the 12-track record features a poignant posthumous duet between Bono and the late Dolly Parton on the final song, “Torn.”
The Bottom Line
- Release Date: Carnaval de Luz arrives on Friday, November 13, ending a nine-year gap since 2017’s Songs of Experience.
- Star-Studded Collaborations: The closing track, “Torn,” features a duet with the late country music icon Dolly Parton, who passed away in August at age 80.
- Legacy Milestones: The album announcement coincides with the 50th anniversary of Larry Mullen Jr. pinning a handwritten notice to the board at Mount Temple Comprehensive School in Dublin in September 1976.
Unpacking U2’s Sixteenth Studio Record
Nine years after releasing Songs of Experience, U2 is returning with a sprawling, 12-song collection titled Carnaval de Luz. The project has been shaped alongside long-time producer Jacknife Lee, alongside returning creative forces Daniel Lanois and Brian Eno. The record follows a pair of early-year EPs—Days of Ash and Easter Lily—that found the band navigating themes of political agency, faith, and aging.
The album’s title was first unveiled to Irish Times journalist Róisín Ingle on her Drummer Seeks Musician podcast, tying the modern rollout directly back to the band’s foundational roots in Dublin. Fifty years ago this week, drummer Larry Mullen Jr. put up a notice at Mount Temple Comprehensive School seeking musicians to form a band, launching a half-century run in rock history.
Inside the Dolly Parton Collaboration and Tracklist
Here is the kicker: the emotional anchor of the record arrives in its final moments. The closing track, “Torn,” features a duet between Bono and Dolly Parton. Described as a tender country song detailing broken family ties, the track was co-written by U2, Parton, and Snow Patrol’s Johnny McDaid. Parton recorded her vocals prior to her passing in August at the age of 80 following a brief battle with cancer.
Guitarist The Edge described the new material as a “messy, provocative, sacred collection of songs,” noting that the recording marks the first-ever use of flat-wound strings on a U2 record. Meanwhile, Bono offered a characteristically theatrical framing for the release:
“Roll up, roll up, roll up! Bring your purple socks, your broken hearts, your rose-tinted naivety… oh be amazed in the hall of mirrors. There will be loud guitars, deep bass, some ecstatic rhythms, and, yes, some silver tears will make an appearance! Because in the near distance, just outside our carnival of light, there are all kinds of creatures… the same imagination that brings us our creativity can also bring us monsters. So we make the drums louder. We build a bigger fire. We make our stories wilder and funnier. We make the melodies sweeter and the songs, they better shine, because if the world is in darkness we better not be.”
From Mexico City Visuals to the Official Tracklisting
The rollout for the album has leaned heavily into striking visual storytelling. Alongside the release of the track “Silencio,” the band dropped an accompanying music video shot in Mexico City by Cliqua—the directing duo Pasqual Gutiérrez and Raúl “RJ” Sanchez. Cliqua previously helmed the video for the buoyant single “Street of Dreams,” which debuted back in July.
Promotional imagery features the band members wading into the shallows of a beach in full suits, with Bono wearing a top hat and carrying a walking cane. But the music itself forms the core of the upcoming winter release. Below is the complete, official tracklisting for Carnaval de Luz:
| Track Number | Song Title | Notable Details |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Go (Carnaval de Luz) | Opening track |
| 2 | La Reina | — |
| 3 | Street of Dreams | Lead single, released in July with Mexico City video |
| 4 | The Mirror Maker | Features Rosalía |
| 5 | Superficiality | — |
| 6 | If the World Is at War, We Better Not Be | — |
| 7 | Silencio | New single with Cliqua-directed video |
| 8 | The Greatest Show on Earth | — |
| 9 | Glorify | — |
| 10 | Midnight Sunshine | — |
| 11 | Can’t Stop Us Now | — |
| 12 | Torn | Features Dolly Parton; co-written with Johnny McDaid |
