{"id":678830,"date":"2026-11-08T18:52:08","date_gmt":"2026-11-08T18:52:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/678830\/"},"modified":"2026-11-08T18:52:08","modified_gmt":"2026-11-08T18:52:08","slug":"u2s-carnaval-de-luz-album-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/678830\/","title":{"rendered":"U2’s ‘Carnaval de Luz’ Album: Review"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tIn the 1988 documentary Rattle and Hum, B.B. King chats with Bono<\/a>, then 27. The bluesman reflects on his station in life: \u201c[People] say, \u2018There he is, a 62-year-old \u2014 and what is he trying to do?’\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tIt\u2019s a question that U2<\/a>\u2018s members may have asked themselves as they worked on Carnaval de Luz<\/a>, their 16th full-length and first album of original music in nearly a decade. They were teens when the group formed in Dublin half a century ago, in their thirties when their art-damaged rock started to \u201cfuck up the mainstream,\u201d<\/a> middle-aged when they reinvented themselves with \u201cBeautiful Day,\u201d and old enough to know better when they brute-forced Songs of Innocence onto your iPhone. Their resume boasts multiplatinum Number One hits, instant sellout tours, and household-name status. But now, here they are, sixtysomething years old \u2014 and what are they trying to do?<\/p>\n

\n\tU2 show they\u2019re nowhere close to a finish line on Carnaval de Luz<\/a>, whose central theme seems to be \u201cit\u2019s not too late\u201d: It\u2019s not too late to party (\u201cGo [Carnaval de Luz]\u201d), not too late to find God (\u201cMidnight Sunshine\u201d), not too late for empathy (\u201cTorn\u201d), not too late to save a relationship (\u201cIf the World Is at War We Better Not Be\u201d), not too late to save the world (\u201cStreet of Dreams\u201d), and just plain not too late (\u201cCan\u2019t Stop Us Now\u201d).\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tEach song is tight and punchy, memorable and melodic. The music is the opposite of the blues, as well as U2\u2019s legend-making hits; it\u2019s big, bright pop music with more silver linings than clouds and only a few minor keys. As always, U2 work best when they\u2019re not trying too hard. The songs on Carnaval never recall \u201cPride (in the Name of Love),\u201d or \u201cOne,\u201d or \u201cStuck in a Moment,\u201d but they do sound like U2 every time Bono opens his mouth and croons something profound (\u201cNobody is alone but nobody knows that,\u201d on \u201cLa Reina\u201d) as much as when he belts something a little corny (\u201cSing-a-ling the reggaeton,\u201d also on \u201cLa Reina\u201d). They sound like U2 whenever the Edge<\/a>\u2018s guitar echoes and chimes (\u201cStreet of Dreams,\u201d the intro to \u201cThe Mirror Maker [Rosal\u00eda]\u201d), when Adam Clayton<\/a>\u2018s bass stabs and undulates (\u201cLa Reina\u201d), and when Larry Mullen Jr<\/a>. plays a propulsive, march-like rhythm (\u201cCan\u2019t Stop Us Now\u201d) \u2014 affectations that come to them naturally.<\/p>\n

\t\tEditor\u2019s picks<\/p>\n

\n\tCarnaval\u2019s best song, \u201cThe Greatest Show on Earth,\u201d does resemble The Joshua Tree\u2019s big singles, thanks to an ambient soundscape assisted by that album\u2019s producer, Brian Eno. But it also fits in with the lean, hook-focused essence of the rest of the LP, produced by Jacknife Lee. The band\u2019s last collection of originals, 2017\u2019s Songs of Experience<\/a>, suffered from a bit too much experience \u2014 nine credited producers \u2014 and the songs went in too many directions. This time, they kept the production relatively simple and achieved a cohesive feel.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tThey seem refreshed. Carnaval de Luz is an ambitious endeavor, connecting the previously released EPs Days of Ash<\/a> and Easter Lily<\/a> into a conceptual arc. Carnaval, at least the way they spell it, is Brazil\u2019s colorful festival preceding Lent (which good Catholic boys like U2 know means Ash Wednesday, a day of ash) and, later, Easter.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tDays of Ash featured the punk rocker \u201cAmerican Obituary,\u201d mourning the death of Ren\u00e9e Good at the hands of an ICE agent, and the powerful, Roy Orbison-like \u201cThe Tears of Things,\u201d which obliquely addresses the divide between Gaza and Israel. Easter Lily, the better of the two EPs, featured \u201cSong for Hal,\u201d a classic-sounding U2 song about never feeling alone (\u201cYou are not alone when you close your eyes,\u201d sings the Edge) and \u201cIn a Life,\u201d which features more traditional U2 drama and sparkling guitar. The final song, \u201cCoexist,\u201d ends with the opening analog-synth notes of Carnaval, starting the cycle over again.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tWhen taken as a whole \u2014 and a deluxe edition of Carnaval de Luz does pair the LP with the EPs \u2014 the songs present an alternative argument to pop-culture doomsaying, since, as always, U2\u2019s central message is preaching peace, hope, and love. And, well, the music is fun. Right from the word \u201cGo,\u201d the upbeat dance song that kicks off Carnaval, they fuse Nile Rodgers\u2013style disco guitar, Suicide-inspired keys, and hooks galore into a dance-rock anthem with lyrics about how they \u201ccame to find other people who feel like this.\u201d Best yet, the song runs under three minutes.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\t\tRelated Content<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cLa Reina\u201d and \u201cStreet of Dreams\u201d borrow the spirit of Latin pop without becoming Latin pop (though there is a little hip-hop on \u201cStreet of Dreams\u201d), and Bono still aspires to transmit universal truths like \u201cEveryone is on their own, everybody knows that\u201d on the former and \u201cDon\u2019t you give up, and your dreams won\u2019t give up on you\u201d on the latter. On \u201cThe Mirror Maker (Rosal\u00eda),\u201d Bono may be drawing inspiration from Rosal\u00eda, but the Edge is thinking of Pete Townshend as he strums big wind-milling chords on acoustic and electric guitars.<\/p>\n

\t\tTrending Stories<\/p>\n

\n\tThe album\u2019s best songs come toward the end, and they\u2019re anything but quiet. The intro the Edge plays on \u201cThe Greatest Show on Earth\u201d begins like a Joshua Tree<\/a> single but then the guitar echoes shift out of phase, similar to Refused\u2019s \u201cThe Shape of Punk to Come,\u201d perhaps to show they\u2019re in a new era. Then they settle into a gentle rumination on love, aging, and God. \u201cIs this a church of love or fear?\u201d Bono sings. \u201cHave we made God feel like a stranger here?\u201d Meanwhile, he repeats words for extra hooky oomph on the Martin Garrix co-produced \u201cGlorify,\u201d singing, \u201cThey\u2019re looking for you to glorify, glorify.\u201d And \u201cMidnight Sunshine\u201d feels like it could be both a sex jam and an end-of-the-world party song, since Bono\u2019s lyrics \u2014 \u201cIn the dark, we discover midnight sunshine\u201d \u2014 are open to interpretation.<\/p>\n

\n\tCarnaval ends with \u201cTorn,\u201d a country-ish duet with Dolly Parton in her final recorded vocal<\/a>, which recalls Johnny Cash\u2019s appearance on the band\u2019s Zooropa. Just like \u201cSunday Bloody Sunday,\u201d U2\u2019s chronicle of the division wrought by Ireland\u2019s troubles decades earlier, it\u2019s not a \u201crebel song\u201d<\/a> but a humanitarian plea. Parton sounds emotional and cracked, and Bono deepens his voice for maximum gravitas as they describe \u201ca family at war.\u201d Neither Parton nor Bono calls out Republicans and Democrats, Catholics and Protestants, or any other ideologically divided people. It\u2019s clear that Parton and U2 just want everyone in the world to try to understand one another on a fundamental level, before it\u2019s too late. That is what U2 are trying to do.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In the 1988 documentary Rattle and Hum, B.B. King chats with Bono, then 27. The bluesman reflects on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":678831,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[20530,26016,93,61,60,287298,278,37866,660],"class_list":["post-678830","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-adam-clayton","tag-bono","tag-entertainment","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-larry-mullen-jr","tag-music","tag-the-edge","tag-u2"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/678830","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=678830"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/678830\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/678831"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=678830"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=678830"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=678830"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}