Carnaval de Luz

Release

Carnaval de Luz was released on 13 November 2026. Deluxe CD and LP editions include physical copies of the preceding EPs Days of Ash and Easter Lily.

To promote the record, U2 performed a concert at Tate Modern for BBC Music on 3 November that paid tribute to Brian Eno and featured performances of songs on which he collaborated with the band. The performance will air later in the month on BBC Two, BBC Radio 2, and BBC Sounds.

Independent record stores around the world hosted listening sessions of the album for fans the day before its release.

Compositon

Carnaval de Luz is primarily a rock and pop album.

Reception

Carnaval de Luz was met with widespread praise from music critics, earning a weighted average score of 76 out of 100 on review aggregator Metacritic.

Dave Simpson of The Guardian said that the band "sound rejuvenated" with Mullen back and that although the lyrics had the "usual bagful of trademark earnest Bono-isms", the music was "so epically impassioned and elevating that... it might not change the world, but it can certainly uplift anyone listening to it". Simpson thought that despite some of his favorite songs from the companion EPs not appearing on the album, it was "some of the band's best work in more than 30 years". Brian Hiatt of Rolling Stone similarly judged that the band seemed refreshed, saying, "Each song is tight and punchy, memorable and melodic", while praising the simplicity of the production for making the songs feel cohesive. He called the album an "ambitious endeavor" and said that it stood as "an alternative argument to pop-culture doomsaying". Neil McCormick of The Telegraph described the release as "shiny, poppy, artful and heartfelt, full of hope and optimism" with songs that were "full of rhythmic bounce and melodic swagger". He believed that the record had a "lightness of spirit that might be surprising coming from U2". Victoria Segal of Mojo called the album "a wind-tunnel rush of colour and sound, a concerted attempt to work against the enveloping misery engendered by the current state of the world." Noting "occasional platitudinous lapses", she praised the band's return to "full strength" with Mullen active again, and she concluded "Fifty years since they came together in the schoolyard, U2 still throw one hell of a parade." Writing for Uncut, Andrew Mueller said the band were "back in readily recognisable form" and that the album "Lyrically and spiritually... is also recognisable as another chapter in U2's manifesto of dogged optimism". Mueller described "The Greatest Show on Earth" as a "highlight not just of this album, but the entire U2 songbook".

Kevin Harley of Record Collector stated that if the album "can seem characteristically guilty of trying too hard to be all things to all modern U2 fans, not least with its phalanx of collaborators... it also serves a flawed but fervent and full-bodied contrasting partner-piece to its sibling EPs." Harley concluded that the band "sound ambitious and engaged in their 50th year, swinging for the fences and hitting more targets than not." Will Hodgkinson of The Times gave the album three out of five stars, writing that while it occasionally descends into "Coldplay-like levels of Panglossian positivity", its central message—that "happiness is an act of resistance"—is welcome. He highlighted "The Greatest Show on Earth" and the duet "Torn" as standouts, while criticising tracks such as "Street of Dreams" and "The Mirror Maker (Rosalía)". Ed Power of The Irish Times said, "It's hard to recall a moment since the turn of the century when U2 have sounded so invigorated, so unburdened and so over themselves." He called Carnaval de Luz "easily their best" album since How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb (2004) and highlighted "The Greatest Show on Earth" as the album's bittersweet "centrepiece".

In a four-star review for RTÉ, Alan Corr described Carnaval de Luz as U2's freshest work in years, praising its optimism and energy. Although he criticised "Superficiality" and "The Greatest Show on Earth", Corr considered the album's second half particularly strong, highlighting "Glorify", "Can't Stop Us Now" and "Torn". He concluded that after fifty years together, the band sounded "reinvigorated, if not reinvented".

Sam Sodomsky of Pitchfork wrote that Carnaval de Luz "rides on the back of these hard lessons and pushes forward, with a lighter heart and unlikely grace," highlighting how the thinned-out sound allows each band member to take the spotlight. However, Sodomsky noted that the record "loses some momentum" around the mid-album tracks like "If the World Is at War We Better Not Be", pointing out that some of their trademark grand ambitions "still seems beyond their grasp." Joe Goggins of NME noted that while Bono had not moved past his "penchant for lyrical grandiosity", the band sounded "more playful than preachy for the first time in a long time". He praised the album's "stirring nods" to The Joshua Tree and Achtung Baby highlighting the Edge's soaring guitars on the "outstanding" "The Greatest Show on Earth"—as well as its disarmingly simple, melody-driven pop tracks like "Superficiality" and "Midnight Sunshine", concluding that subtlety "suits them".

Personnel

Adapted from album liner notes.

U2

Bono – vocals, keyboards (track 6)

The Edge – guitar, vocals, keyboards

Adam Clayton – bass guitar

Larry Mullen Jr. – drums, percussion