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Carnaval de Luz (2026)

Where the lyrics of Carnaval de Luz take you, and where it was really made.

The title is Spanish and Portuguese for 'Carnival of Light', a name that may point to an unreleased avant-garde recording by the band, though no link has been confirmed.

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Album story

Overview

• Carnaval de Luz: 16th studio album by Irish rock band U2, scheduled for release
• Produced by Jacknife Lee; release set for 13 November 2026 on Island Records
• First album of new original material since Songs of Experience in 2017
• Third release of new songs in 2026, after the EPs Days of Ash (February) and Easter Lily (April)
• Title is Spanish and Portuguese for 'Carnival of Light'
• U2 will support the album with The Greatest Show on Earth World Tour in 2027

Background

• In an interview with Rolling Stone, Jacknife Lee described the sessions as one of the most intense and joyful periods of U2's career
• Lee said the songs are on a level with the band's best work
• The French Wikipedia entry gives the album as 12 songs
• The album includes 'Torn', which features the last recording of American singer-songwriter Dolly Parton

Recording

• Jacknife Lee produced the album, with Ryan Tedder credited as additional producer
• Lee and Tedder also played synthesizer and programming
• Duncan Stewart and Matt Bishop are credited for recording, Rich Rich for mixing, and Chris Gehringer for mastering
• Core line-up: Bono (vocals), The Edge (guitar, vocals), Adam Clayton (bass), Larry Mullen Jr. (drums, percussion)

Cover

• The cover recalls the Beatles' Abbey Road: the band, in formal dress, walks in single file along a beach
• Whether the title refers to the band's Carnival of Light recording has not been confirmed

Sources: en.wikipedia.org · fr.wikipedia.org

Tracklist

Sources: musicbrainz.org

Artist

Formation

• U2 are an Irish rock band formed in Dublin in 1976 by teenage pupils of Mount Temple Comprehensive School.
• Members: Bono (lead vocals), the Edge (guitar, keyboards, vocals), Adam Clayton (bass), Larry Mullen Jr. (drums).
• The band was first named Feedback, then The Hype, and in March 1978 took the name U2.
• They won the Pop Group '78 talent contest in Limerick and signed with Island Records in 1980.

Career

• Debut album Boy (1980); War (1983) was their first UK number-one album.
• The Joshua Tree (1987) made them international stars and was their greatest critical and commercial success, selling about 25 million copies.
• The band reinvented their sound in the 1990s with Achtung Baby (1991) and the Zoo TV Tour.
• Their 2009–2011 360° Tour held records for the highest-grossing concert tour until 2019.
• In 2023 they released Songs of Surrender and began the U2:UV Achtung Baby Live residency at Sphere in Las Vegas.
• Estimated record sales: about 170 million worldwide; 22 Grammy Awards; Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees (2005).

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Reception

At release

• Mojo's Victoria Segal wrote that the album feels like U2's attempt to pass on a little supply of hope, comfort, and light
• Segal called the album hugely generous, bold, adventurous, and refusing despair
• Record Collector's Kevin Harley said the album can seem guilty of trying too hard to be everything to modern U2 fans, given its large group of collaborators
• Harley called the album a flawed but fervent and full-bodied contrasting partner-piece to its sibling EPs
• Harley concluded that the band sound ambitious and engaged in their 50th year, swinging for the fences and hitting more targets than not
• Uncut gave the album 8/10, saying it succeeds in being messy, provocative, and sacred, and marks a real renewal in the band's sound texture
• The Irish Times said it is striking that Dublin punks who became stadium giants still have so much to say
• The Irish Times called the album reinvigorated and liberated, and praised a musical relevance not heard from the band in decades
• The Irish Times described the album as raw energy from their hit Vertigo stretched across a whole record
• In France, Eric Bureau of Le Parisien considered it one of the best albums of the year and of the Irish band's output, the most seductive, biting, and captivating since How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb 22 years earlier

Sources: en.wikipedia.org · fr.wikipedia.org

Trivia

• Deluxe CD and LP editions will include physical copies of the preceding EPs Days of Ash and Easter Lily
• Carnaval de Luz will be the band's third release of new songs in 2026
• U2 are set to perform a concert for BBC Music on 3 November, to air later in the month on BBC Two, BBC Radio 2, and BBC Sounds
• Independent record stores around the world will host listening sessions of the album for fans the day before its release
• The French Wikipedia entry notes that the title may refer to Carnival of Light, an unreleased avant-garde recording by the band, though this link is not confirmed

Sources: en.wikipedia.org · fr.wikipedia.org

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