U2 Announces First Studio Album In Nine Years, 'Carnaval De Luz'

U2 has announced its first studio album of new material in nine years. “Carnaval De Luz,” a 12-song collection, is due on November 13, 2026, following the September 24 release of its new single, “Silencio.”

The title translates as “Carnival of Light,” and the announcement places light, connection and renewal at the center of the record. For a band whose biggest songs have often stretched personal questions across stadium-sized spaces, the idea feels both familiar and newly timely. “Silencio” offers listeners the first full doorway into that next chapter while the complete album remains seven weeks away.

A significant final collaboration

The album’s closing track, “Torn,” is a duet between Bono and Dolly Parton. U2’s announcement identifies it as Parton’s last recorded vocal performance. That description should be understood as the band’s account of the recording, not as a suggestion that the duet was made recently. Parton died in August 2026, according to widely reported statements from her family.

That context gives the closer particular emotional weight, but it is only one part of a broader album announcement. “Carnaval De Luz” is U2’s first full studio release since 2017’s “Songs of Experience,” ending a long interval without a new album of original material.

The band has spent decades working at the scale where an album announcement becomes a shared cultural moment. This one arrives with a clear date, a complete 12-track shape and a song listeners can hear now — enough to begin forming an impression without pretending the whole record has already revealed itself.

“Carnaval De Luz” arrives November 13. Until then, “Silencio” is the opening signal from a band returning to the studio-album conversation.