U2 Closes Its First Album in Nine Years With Dolly Parton's Last Word
Carnaval De Luz, out November 13, ends on "Torn," a duet co-written with Dolly Parton that turned out to be her final recorded vocal.
U2 has not put out a full album since 2017, so the news alone would have been enough. Instead, "Carnaval De Luz" arrives November 13 on Island Records carrying something heavier: the last song Dolly Parton ever sang.
The 12-track record closes with "Torn," a duet co-written by U2, Parton, and Snow Patrol's Johnny McDaid, described as a tender country song about broken family ties "that holds wider resonances." Parton died in September at 80, and by the accounts now circulating, she recorded her vocal from bed rather than let the song go unfinished. That is the kind of detail a marketing team could never manufacture and a legacy act does not get twice: an album's closing statement, and an American icon's parting one, landing on the same track.
The rest of the record is built to be heard, not just read about. Producer Jacknife Lee, back with the band for the first time since 2004, brought in Brian Eno for co-writes and synths on "Go (Carnaval De Luz)," while The Edge says the album marks "the first-ever use of flat-wound strings on a U2 recording." Bono's own description sets the tone: "There will be loud guitars, deep bass, some ecstatic rhythms and, yes, some silver tears will make an appearance." The cover, band members walking a beach in single file with Bono out front in a top hat, plays its own game of telephone with "Abbey Road." For a band whose whole career has been about scale, closing the biggest release in nine years on a single quiet voice is the boldest choice on the album.
Kyle Duford, Founder & Editor, BRNDWIRE. More from Kyle →
