For nearly a decade, U2 had combed through their memories and catalog to create a trilogy of records exploring how their past shapes the present. Songs of Innocence, released in 2014, and its companion album, 2017’s Songs of Experience, took stock of the band’s legacy while adding a few new chapters to their still-developing story.
With 2023’s Songs of Surrender, U2 brought the project to a fitting close by rerecording 40 of their songs — some classics and some obscurities chosen by the four group members to represent their first four decades, marking the end of a chapter in their career. Their 16th LP, Carnaval De Luz, continues the spiritual path of two EPs released earlier in 2026 — Days of Ash and Easter Lily — and marks the start of a new era.
Really, though, the dozen new tracks are U2’s least complicated since 2009’s No Line on the Horizon, though Big Issues remain. With the two EPs as its springboard, Carnaval De Luz positions world turmoil against themes of religion and rebirth — Days of Ash and Easter Lily were released on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday, respectively — for an album that renews U2’s musical and sacred commitment that began a half-century ago in Dublin.
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Carnaval De Luz celebrates life, friendship and the discovery of new sounds in the corners of familiar foundations. There are times — “Go (Carnaval De Luz)”‘s synth stutters (courtesy of Brian Eno), the stadium funk of “Superficiality,” the riffing “Silencio” and “Midnight Sunshine”‘s deceivingly bright pop — where U2 seem to be having a blast, the loosest they’ve been on record since 2004’s How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb. And songs like “Street of Dreams” and “The Greatest Show on Earth” nod to their past and include some self-mythologizing that doesn’t detract from the music.
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Still, the grave seriousness that has shadowed U2 from the start occasionally looms here. “Nobody is alone, but nobody knows that / Everyone is on their own, everybody knows that,” Bono sings in “La Reina,” which, musically and lyrically, sounds like the past 20 years of U2 wrapped into four and a half minutes; “If the World Is at War We Better Not Be” is as tangled as its title; and the closing track, the weary “Torn,” can’t quite equal its marquee billing featuring Dolly Parton in her last recorded vocal performance. Overall, though, Carnaval De Luz is a rebound, a celebration of survival for a band once again looking forward.
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Gallery Credit: Michael Gallucci
