U2 are too release the propulsive new song “Silencio,” the lead single from their upcoming 15th studio album, “Carnaval De Luz”.
“Roll up, roll up, roll up!” Bono declared in a press release announcing “Carnaval De Luz”. “Bring your purple socks, your broken hearts, your rose-tinted naivety… oh be amazed in the hall of mirrors. There will be loud guitars, deep bass, some ecstatic rhythms and, yes, some silver tears will make an appearance! Cause in the near distance just outside our carnival of light there are all kinds of creatures… the same imagination that brings us our creativity can also bring us monsters. So we make the drums louder. We build a bigger fire. We make our stories wilder and funnier. We make the melodies sweeter and the songs, they better shine, because if the world is in darkness we better not be.”
Meanwhile, the Edge described the new album as a “messy, provocative, sacred collection of songs,” adding that it “features the first-ever use of flat-wound strings on a U2 recording. Just saying.”
Across an energetic backbeat, courtesy of drummer Larry Mullen Jr., frontman Bono invokes religious imagery as he struggles with spirituality in the modern world. “Uneasy feeling, I just heard a gunshot / There are things you can get used to or not,“ the frontman proclaims, his voice tinged with both energy and anxiety. Meanwhile, the Edge’s presence if felt throughout the track, with his distinctive guitar tones helping bring “Silencio” to soaring heights.
“Carnaval De Luz” will mark U2’s first collection of new original music since 2017’s “Songs of Experience”. While the nine year stretch seems long, the Irish rockers have remained very busy. In 2023 they released “Songs of Surrender”, an album reimagining many of their classic tunes. That same year, they opened the Sphere in Las Vegas with a residency that ran into 2024. More recently, U2 surprise-released a pair of EPs earlier this year: “Days of Ash”, released to coincide with Ash Wednesday, and “Easter Lily”, which arrived on Easter.
The band collaborated with a variety of artists on the LP, including Brian Eno, Martin Garrix, Daniel Lanois and Ryan Tedder. Still, the biggest surprise is an appearance from Dolly Parton. The country icon duets on the album’s closing track, “Torn,” in what is said to be her “last recorded vocal performance.”
“This album we’ve made, we’ve caught it again, and it’s strong stuff,” Bono said in a recent podcast Drummer Seeks Musicians: The Making of U2 on Wednesday. “As people who’ve heard [the band’s 2026 EPs] “Days of Ash” and “Easter Lily” will hear, this is really the prequel, to both of them.”
“Carnaval De Luz” will be released on November. 13th.
