U2 Unveil 'Carnaval De Luz,' With Dolly Parton's Last Vocal

NME and Rolling Stone report U2's first album of new songs in nine years arrives Nov. 13, closing with Dolly Parton's final recorded vocal on 'Torn'.

NME and Rolling Stone report that U2 have announced 'Carnaval De Luz', their first album of new material in nine years, set for release on November 13 and produced by Jacknife Lee. The 12-song record arrives on the 50th anniversary of the band forming — Rolling Stone notes the group first played together in Larry Mullen Jr.'s kitchen on September 25, 1976 — and alongside it the band dropped the single 'Silencio', with a video NME says was recorded in Mexico City by Cliqua, the duo of Pasqual Gutiérrez and Raúl "RJ" Sanchez.

The detail that has stunned fans is the closing track 'Torn (Feat. Dolly Parton)'. Rolling Stone reports the country icon, who died last month, delivers what is described as her final vocal performance on the song, co-written with Snow Patrol's Johnny McDaid and the band. According to NME, Daniel Lanois also worked on 'Torn', with Backseat Mafia reporting he plays pedal steel on it. A duet between Bono and the late Parton closing the album gives the record an elegiac weight beyond a routine reunion album.

Rather than a stately victory lap, Rolling Stone describes 'Silencio' as a concise, raging punk tune, and says the Suicide-influenced opener 'Go (Carnaval De Luz)' is the wildest U2 recording in years. Bono calls the album "anarchic," and Rolling Stone quotes the Edge saying, "Whatever you thought you were gonna hear when you put on the new U2 album, you were not expecting this." The Edge's line in the NME pack — "the first-ever use of flat-wound strings on a U2 recording. Just saying" — underlines how deliberately odd this record aims to be.

The album completes a conceptual arc the band had already seeded. NME and Ultimate Classic Rock note U2 surprise-released two six-track EPs earlier this year — 'Days Of Ash' on Ash Wednesday and 'Easter Lily' on Easter — and the album sits before them in the liturgical calendar, with Carnival preceding Lent and rebirth.

Rolling Stone reports drummer Larry Mullen's return after a debilitating neck injury supplied much of the album's energy; he says he "couldn't play" and "didn't think I'd play again," making the renewed studio urgency remarkable. Rolling Stone quotes Adam Clayton calling the record "the culmination of the work that everyone has been doing for 50 years," while the Edge insists there is "no complacency." Backseat Mafia reports European pre-orderers will enter a lottery for a tour next year, raising the stakes for how these songs land live.

The full 12-track tracklist, corroborated across NME, Rolling Stone and Ultimate Classic Rock, runs from 'Go (Carnaval De Luz)' through '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' and 'Can't Stop Us Now' to 'Torn (Feat. Dolly Parton)'.