U2 announce new album Carnaval de Luz, featuring final recording by Dolly Parton — SkimNews
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- U2 announced "Carnaval de Luz," their 16th studio album and first full-length release in nearly a decade, with 12 tracks set for release on 13 November.
- The album closes with "Torn," a country duet featuring Dolly Parton and Bono that is her final recorded performance; Parton died aged 80 on 25 August.
- The Edge called the album "a messy, provocative, sacred collection of songs," while Bono promised "loud guitars, deep bass, some ecstatic rhythms" with a "defiantly joyful" carnival vibe.
- The record reunites U2 with longtime producers Brian Eno and Daniel Lanois (who helmed The Unforgettable Fire, The Joshua Tree, and Achtung Baby) — Eno co-writes three tracks, while Lanois plays pedal steel on the Parton duet.
- The album also features Martin Garrix as co-writer on "Glorify" and Ryan Tedder as co-producer on "Silencio," a "raucous rock'n'roll song" released alongside the announcement.
- The news arrives 50 years to the week after drummer Larry Mullen Jr. — then aged 14 — pinned a notice at Dublin's Mount Temple Comprehensive School seeking musicians to form a band, with all four original members still in the lineup.
Why it matters: With the release landing exactly 50 years after Larry Mullen Jr.'s original notice, U2 secures a quintessentially timed career milestone; hosting Dolly Parton's final recording — made before her 25 August death at 80 — gives the album lasting historical weight beyond just another studio entry in a discography already spanning three consecutive UK No. 1 albums.
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