U2’s new album is a big, shiny (and slightly odd) piece of pop art

Neil McCormickMon, November 9, 2026 at 12:30 PM UTC

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U2’s new album includes a song with the late Dolly Parton, recorded three months before her death - Viviane Sassen

I doubt anyone would have anticipated 2026 drawing to a close with the late, much-loved American icon Dolly Parton singing her final song with the Irish rock band U2, a bruised and heartsore lament about internecine strife. Torn is the magnificent and eerily timely closing track to U2’s 16th album, Carnaval De Luz, on which Parton and Bono duet with dark gravitas about “a house divided… when brothers turn to strangers who can’t feel each other’s pain”.

The song was written by Parton with U2, with the 80-year-old country singer leaving her hospital bed to record her last vocal, three months before her death in August. Her voice is as beautiful and airy as ever, floating off above Bono’s more sombre vocal shadow. As America confronts its profound political divisions in the wake of midterm elections, it feels like a message of love and reconciliation from beyond the veil. “Nothing hurts a mother more than a family at war,” sings Dolly as U2 chug and shimmer beneath.

Cometh the hour, cometh the band. U2 are back, with what will surely be the last blockbuster album release of the year. The world is in a state of uproar, riven by wars, political disputes and apocalyptic anxiety – what better time for Ireland’s idealistic agit-rockers to retake the stage? Yet Carnaval De Luz is not a preachy record, nor an angry record, and certainly not a defeated one. It is shiny, poppy, artful and heartfelt, full of hope and optimism, fuelled by religious conviction, sometimes railing against the rise of the satanic shadow of fascism but more often putting its faith in the spirit of youth and the possibilities of a better future, with songs full of rhythmic bounce and melodic swagger. In complete contrast with Dolly’s aching finale, the opening title track, Go (Carnaval De Luz), is a Brian Eno-powered blizzard of weird sound and rhythms, a full-pelt electro charge into battle, with Bono proclaiming that he has “had it with the fear” and that “illumination is the way to fight”.

U2’s 16th album, Carnaval De Luz, is fuelled by religious conviction - Michael Schwartz

Last week, U2 performed a secret show for the BBC at the Tate Modern in London (set to be broadcast on November 30). It was almost the definition of art rock, playing in front of projections of Eno’s randomised experimental artwork 77 Million Paintings in a major gallery whilst art students sat around on bean bags. At first Bono seemed quite perplexed about what to do with himself onstage, without being able to use his gamut of rabble-rousing skills to stir the reclining onlookers. Afterwards he told me a curious thing happened: he started to relax and just enjoy the sound of the band and his own singing. “I realise I have a very confrontational attitude to being on-stage,” he said. “And when you take that away, I actually started to have fun.”

There is a lot of fun on this record, a lightness of spirit that might be surprising coming from U2. It suggests they no longer feel impelled to write stadium-scale anthems and are instead enjoying the peculiar sounds Edge makes with his guitar effects, and the interesting combinations of shuddering rhythms and sideways basslines concocted by the rhythm section of drummer Larry Mullen Jr and bassist Adam Clayton.

The band celebrated 50 years together this year, and Carnaval contains musical links to past glories: the dark glam twists of Achtung Baby on La Reina, echoey hints of Edge’s Joshua Tree guitars on songs like The Mirror Maker (Rosalia), Superficiality and Street of Dreams, whilst the stripped-back, bass-heavy attack of Silencio is their most minimalistic rocket blaster since 2004’s Vertigo.

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U2 celebrated 50 years together this year, and Carnaval contains musical links to past glories - Michael Schwartz

The U2 album that Carnaval reminds me most of, however – for better or worse – is 1997’s Pop, which is not one of their most loved albums but might be their most giddy and colourful, when the world was at their feet and they sounded as if they were really enjoying themselves. In art-rock terms it is more Jackson Pollock than Andy Warhol. But better to be too much than not enough. Its peculiar spirit is encapsulated by the strange, juddering, offbeat rhythm of Can’t Stop Us Now, a people-pleasing celebration of unity in the face of oppression (“all of us are better than any of us”) packed with references to the joy of parties, friendship, music and alcohol rather than fighting on the streets.

The album (mainly produced by Jacknife Lee) pivots around a lovely Eno collaboration, If The World Is At War We Better Not Be. Bono’s voice is isolated over a stacked synthetic choir as he specifically calls out the misrule of “the prince of the power of the air” (a title for Satan in Ephesians 2:2) who speaks through earthly “emperors of despair”. “We’ve got some words for your boss,” Bono sings, “you can go right back to hell.” For an album fuelled by political protest, Carnaval is noticeably unspecific about naming names. “Catastrophising is the glamorising of the world’s pain / Don’t want to make a devil bigger, stop repeating his name,” Bono sings on the limber, Motown-flavoured Midnight Sunshine (made with the dance producer Martin Garrix).

Standout track is The Greatest Show on Earth, which is also the name of the world tour U2 have announced for 2027. It is an emotional song of regrets and existential doubt, a dark mid-tempo sci-fi ballad that expands to epic anthemic dimensions with Bono’s voice rising amidst endlessly echoing guitars.

It takes on the quality of a prayer for mankind, questioning whether humanity has already peaked: “The light scatters, things could get worse / These dark matters of the universe / Could not compete with us / We were once the greatest show on earth.” It brazenly seeks forgiveness and redemption, and by implication dares to imagine that the great stadium entertainers might be able to pull off one last magic trick and dazzle themselves and us all again.

Carnaval De Luz is a party at the end of the world: bold, bright and a little bit silly, full of tears and laughter and dancing, and the ghost of Dolly Parton floating in at the end to tell us to stop acting like squabbling children and get our act together before it’s too late.

Carnaval De Luz is released by Island on Friday, November 13. U2 Live for the BBC is set to be broadcast on BBC Two and BBC iPlayer later this month. U2 play London’s Tottenham Hotspur Stadium on June 18 and 19, 2027, tickets from u2.com

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Source: “AOL Entertainment”