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Mysterious waves: U2, still testifying and still working their formulae. Photo \/ Viviane Sassen<\/p>\n
Carnaval de Luz<\/p>\n
By U2<\/p>\n
Although U2 remain dominant crowd pleasers in the rock landscape, they, like the Rolling Stones, have long ceased to be musically relevant, their position largely anchored by almost half a century of frontline action.<\/p>\n
\n After their often thrilling and innovative albums Achtung Baby (1991)
\n and Zooropa (1993) \u2013 and the magisterial technology of the concerts \u2013 the band mostly reverted to type: heroic songs sometimes leaning into the bombastic; lyrics tapping into contemporary unease; the distinctive chime of The Edge\u2019s guitar; Bono\u2019s ballad-to-bellow mannerisms \u2026\n <\/p>\n
There were sometimes exceptional and even challenging songs along the way \u2013 2023\u2019s Songs of Surrender where they retrofitted 40 of their own well-known works was interesting \u2013 but, despite the many remixes, remasters and different producers, U2 have been mostly working their formulae.<\/p>\n
This year\u2019s Days of Ash and Easter Lily EPs in advance of this new album showed commitment and sharp politics (American Obituary, The Tears of Things), but also some of The Edge and Bono\u2019s most trite and cliched lyrics (Song for Hal).<\/p>\n
From ongoing sessions with producer Jacknife Lee (and others), their 16th studio album arrives as a bona fide U2 rock album, with the riff-driven La Reina, the stadium-shaped Silencio (which skewers \u201cthe church playing crowd control\u201d) and the faux-funk urgency of Street of Dreams riding one of The Edge\u2019s signature riffs.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Although there are borrowed riffs \u2013 check The Mirror Maker (Rosalia) and self-plagiarism on The Greatest Show on Earth \u2013 the cannoning drumming of Larry Mullen adds tension, notably to They Can\u2019t Stop Us Now: \u201cI see a summer down the road \u2026 where the problems that can\u2019t be solved remain a mystery.\u201d<\/p>\n
Although there\u2019s much that is U2\u2019s signature here \u2013 the same four people can\u2019t help but sound like themselves \u2013 it isn\u2019t without interest, reflecting on their own origins in If The World is at War We Better Not Be: \u201cNo such things as rock and roll, we just needed it to be. I was standing in the schoolyard waiting for you to happen to me.\u201d<\/p>\n
The running order rolls towards optimism with Midnight Sunshine reinforcing the positive when you\u2019re taking cover in your bedroom or a bunker: \u201cIn the imagination of God we are all made up, catastrophising is the glamourising of the world\u2019s pain. You say God no longer cares for us, I say the stars are only there for us.\u201d<\/p>\n
It closes with Dolly Parton\u2019s final recording, a heartbreaking country duet with Bono about a woman\u2019s love for two brothers: \u201cHow am I supposed to choose? I love \u2019em both and I just feel so torn.\u201d She is in appropriately fragile, then ascending, voice on what could be a Civil War ballad or on the soundtrack of the recent tele-series East of Eden.<\/p>\n
Here U2 dig deep into their bag of religious mysticism with references to God, \u201cSt Cecilia pray for us tonight,\u201d angels, the altar, \u201ca light has entered the darkness, no darkness can put it out,\u201d Jesus of Rio \u2026<\/p>\n
Perhaps in troubling times we need an optimistic and boisterous carnival of light, and certainties like the familiarity of U2 testifying and an ancient faith invoked.<\/p>\n
They think we do. <\/p>\n
![\"U2's]()
U2’s Carnaval De Luz is available digitally, on CD and vinyl from Friday, November 13. Photo \/ SuppliedSave<\/a>Share this article<\/p>\nReminder, this is a Premium article and requires a subscription to read.<\/p>\n
Copy LinkEmailFacebookTwitter\/XLinkedInReddit<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Review by Graham Reid Music writer\u00b7New Zealand Listener\u00b7 10 Nov, 2026 05:04 PM3 mins to read Graham Reid…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":830446,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[12883,16773,272551,24737,68843,96,61514,42628,272552,8487,128,1779,94527,4995,68920,129,83660,61567,25459,932,56,54,55,40404],"class_list":["post-830445","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-album","tag-can","tag-carnaval","tag-de","tag-deliver","tag-entertainment","tag-graham","tag-last","tag-luz","tag-material","tag-music","tag-new","tag-nine","tag-of","tag-reid","tag-reviews","tag-since","tag-still","tag-their","tag-u2","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom","tag-years"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/830445","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=830445"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/830445\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/830446"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=830445"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=830445"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=830445"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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