Dolly Parton’s Final Recording Is a Heartbreaking Duet with Bono
The 12-track album blends carnival themes, Spanish phrases and a closing duet with Dolly Parton, whose final recorded song appears on the release.
- On Friday, U2 released 'Carnaval de Luz,' their first full-length album of all-new material in nine years. The 12-song collection is loosely themed around Latin America's pre-Lent celebrations, mirroring two EPs the band released earlier this year tied to Ash Wednesday and Easter.
- Celebrating their 50th anniversary with a 46-year catalog, the band carved out the album by pulling together material that best fit a Carnaval theme. This approach resolved years of accumulated recordings into a cohesive project.
- The 12-song collection features a collaboration with Dolly Parton on 'Torn,' her last recorded song, captured in Nashville three months before her death in August. Atmospheric Brian Eno-produced invention blends with post-punk energy throughout the record.
- Bono wrote in a liner notebook that 'putting the messy in the messianic the job of the frontman,' signaling the band's embrace of lyrical complexity. The tracks grapple with philosophy and pop theology across themes of identity, faith, and shared humanity.
- The single 'Street of Dreams' promises to become a 'klaxon call for summer 2027,' with its invitation passing from Bono to millions singing it back. At their 50th-anniversary peak, U2 positions itself as still commanding the scale and ambition that defined their legacy.
21 Articles
21 Articles
The great Irish are back: The new U2 album "Carnaval De Luz" is full of moments of urgency.
The previously frozen U2 sounds as energetic on their new album as it has not been for decades. In the humility hymns of the Irish there is also a reminder to their popular successors of Fontaines D.C.
On U2's first album in almost a decade, the group sounds desperate in Coldplay-esque ways at times. But at times, "Carnaval Da Luz" actually works quite satisfactorily.
U2 Gets On Its Boots for First All-New Full-Length Record in Nine Years, ‘Carnaval de Luz,’ With More Callbacks to Band’s ’90s Peaks Than ’80s Glories: Album Review
“The past and me have got to break up,” Bono sings in the verse that opens “Carnaval de Luz,” U2’s first full-length album of all-new material in nine years. It sounds like a mission statement, doesn’t it? The singer doesn’t linger long on combating nostalgia or breaking out of ingrained patterns, or whatever he means […]
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