In a matter of weeks, U2's new album, Carnaval De Luz, will be released on Nov. 13, 2026, and it will feature the last vocal performance from Dolly Parton before her death.
U2 announced that Carnaval De Luz is coming out on Nov. 13, 2026. The album's second single, “Silencio,” came out along with the announcement. The album will explore themes of “spirituality, friendship, freedom, and endurance in the face of dark, encroaching forces.”
The artwork for the album shows the boys walking on a beach in an Abbey Road-like manner. Naturally, Bono is leading the way while The Edge, Adam Clayton, and Larry Mullen Jr. follow him. The album cover is also reminiscent of Echo & the Bunnymen's Heaven Up Here.
Familiar collaborators like Brian Eno, Martin Garrix, Daniel Lanois, and Ryan Tedder worked on the album. The biggest collaboration, though, is with Parton, who co-wrote and duets with Bono on the closing track, “Torn.” This ended up being her last recorded vocal performance before she passed away and is described as a “tender country song detailing broken family ties that holds wider resonances.”
The Edge called Carnaval De Luz a “messy, provocative, sacred collection of songs” in the press release, noting that it features the “first-ever use of flat-wound strings on a U2 recording.”
Bono, meanwhile, was equally exciting, promising “there will be loud guitars, deep bass, some ecstatic rhythms and, yes, some silver tears will make an appearance!”
“‘Cause 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,” he said, explaining, “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.”
Carnaval De Luz will close out a year full of new material for U2 fans. The band hadn't released an album of new material since 2017's Songs of Experience. In 2026 alone, they released two EPs (Days of Ash, Easter Lily) and will release their 16th album in November.
A review of U2's new single, “Silencio”
For years, a “noisy, uncompromising, unreasonable guitar album” was teased by frontman Bono, and Carnaval De Luz may be exactly that, if the second single, “Silencio,” is any indication.
Adam Clayton kicks things off with a grooving bass line, one that almost sounds like Blur's “Song 2” for a quick moment, before Larry Mullen Jr.'s drumming and The Edge's guitar playing crash the scene.
This is U2 at their best. When all the instrumentalists are grooving, they are unstoppable. U2 fans know that when Bono delivers breathy vocals as he does on “Silencio,” it results in good things (think “The Fly”).
Bono seems to allude to his famous alter-ego, MacPhisto, singing, “In the silence the devil rocks and rolls.” Some believe silence is golden, but U2 has proved that isn't true with Days of Ash and “Silencio.”
The obvious comparison is to “Vertigo,” How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb's lead single. However, the chorus harkens back to “Volcano,” a rocker from Songs of Innocence.
Article Continues Below“Street of Dreams,” Carnaval De Luz's lead single, was an elegant, uplifting, and hopeful bop. “Silencio,” a gritty rock and roll, brings U2 back to their club days.
Days of Ash showed that U2 has their fastball with its politically charged anthems. The Edge has finally been unleashed, and “Silencio” features a wicked guitar riff. Towards the end of the song, he delivers an impassioned solo.
In 155 seconds, U2 deliver one of their best recent rock songs. “The Miracle (of Joey Ramone)” and “The Blackout” had flashes of what “Silencio” delivers.
U2 is undoubtedly back and making music meant for the live stage. The band seems rejuvenated and ready to rock and roll with Carnaval De Luz.
The full track list for U2's Carnaval De Luz
Below is the full track list for U2's upcoming album, Carnaval De Luz.
- “Go (Carnaval De Luz)”
- “La Reina”
- “Street of Dreams”
- “The Mirror Maker (Rosalía)”
- “Superficiality”
- “If The World Is At War We Better Not Be”
- “Silencio”
- “The Greatest Show on Earth”
- “Glorify”
- “Midnight Sunshine”
- “Can't Stop Us Now”
- “Torn” (feat. Dolly Parton)
U2's Carnaval De Luz will be released on Nov. 13.