U2’s First Album in 9 Years Has a Dolly Parton Duet — and It’s Her Last Recording
Nine years. That is how long U2 have made the world wait for a new album — and on Friday, the wait finally ends.
Carnaval de Luz, the band’s 16th studio album, arrives November 13 with 12 new songs produced in part by Jacknife Lee. It is U2’s first album of new material since Songs of Experience in 2017, and the band is marking its 50th year together not with a greatest-hits victory lap, but with a record of brand-new songs.
And then there is the closing track.
“Torn,” the album’s finale, is a duet between Bono and Dolly Parton — co-written with Johnny McDaid, with Daniel Lanois on pedal steel. According to the band’s own announcement, it captures the very last vocal performance Parton ever recorded. That gives the record a weight no comeback album usually carries: a genuine send-off to a friend, sitting at the end of a party record.
The rest of the album is no slouch either. Rosalía guests on “The Mirror Maker,” continuing her run of teaming up with rock acts. The singles fans already know — “Street of Dreams” and “Silencio,” whose video was shot in a landmark Mexico City ballroom — sit alongside “The Greatest Show on Earth,” co-written with Brian Eno, which also lends its name to the tour.
Because yes, there is a tour. Carnaval De Luz Presents: The Greatest Show on Earth World Tour 2027 kicks off February 23 in Mexico City, then hits São Paulo and Buenos Aires before a European leg starting April 26 in Stockholm, with a London stadium date June 18. North American dates have not been announced yet — they are expected in the coming weeks — so Toledo fans should keep an eye out. If U2 play anywhere within driving distance, that is a road trip worth planning.
For millennials who grew up with U2 as the biggest band on the planet and Gen-Z fans who know them through the Sphere residency and the memes, this is the rare legacy-act return that actually has something new to say — and a final Dolly vocal nobody saw coming.
Carnaval de Luz drops Friday, November 13. Pre-orders are live now at u2.com.
Photo: Ângela Antunes / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 2.0)
Sources: WhatListen · 102.9 WMGK · U2.com
