U2 Announce 2026 Album, With Final Recording by Dolly Parton

U2 (Photo: Viviane Sassen; used with permission)

U2 has announced a 16th studio album, Carnaval De Luz, their first of new material in nine years. The title features what is said to be the final recording by Dolly Parton, on a duet with Bono called “Torn.”  The album, via Interscope Records, arrives on November 13, 2026, and will be available in a variety of formats including Limited Edition Deluxe Vinyl and CD box sets, and various limited edition colored and bespoke vinyl variants. Many of the editions are available to order in the U.S. here and in the U.K. here. The Sept. 24 news arrived with a brand-new track, “Silencio.” Watch the video below.

From the announcement: In the week that marks 50 years since Larry Mullen Jr. pinned a handwritten note to the noticeboard of Mount Temple Comprehensive School on the Northside of Dublin in September 1976, “Drummer Seeks Musicians To Form Band,” comes a body of work that sees Bono, The Edge, Adam Clayton, and Larry Mullen Jr. still finding new dimensions and possibilities within their creative process.

Recorded “all over the place” and produced by Jacknife Lee, Carnaval De Luz is a collection of 12 songs exploring themes of spirituality, friendship, freedom and endurance in the face of dark, encroaching forces. Sonically, there are echoes of the band’s most experimental work combined with some strict songwriting in the shape of “The Greatest Show On Earth,” “Glorify,” and “Midnight Sunshine,” as well as the homage to early surf-punk insolence that is “Silencio.”

The music video for “Silencio” was shot in Mexico City and is directed by Cliqua, the Mexican-American directing duo Pasqual Gutiérrez and Raúl “RJ” Sanchez.

The roots of Carnaval De Luz can be traced directly to U2’s two surprise-released and critically acclaimed six-track EPs of early 2026, recorded during the same creative period as the new album. Those releases, Days of Ash and Easter Lily, followed the liturgical calendar, and so Carnaval De Luz sits, stands, and dances before them in timeline. Carnival, a celebration of the flesh, “carne,” before the denial that is Lent, a period of reflection, and the rebirth of Easter. The song connecting the album and two EPs is the final track on the new album, “Torn,” the duet between Bono and Parton, in what has sadly turned out to be her last recorded vocal performance. Co-written by U2, Parton, and Johnny McDaid, it’s a tender country song detailing broken family ties that holds wider resonances.

Carnaval De Luz is released in the band’s 50th year, one in which U2 will have released 24 new songs.

Watch the video for “Street of Dreams,” the first song released from the new album

Related: Our 2015 U2 concert review

Carnaval De Luz Track Listing
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)