U2: Carnaval de Luz review – Irish rock’s crazy diamonds shine on brighter than ever

The Irish Times · Ed Power · 2026-11-06 00:00 UTC

Bono, Edge, Larry Mullen jnr and Adam Clayton haven’t sounded so invigorated and unburdened for decades

It’s so long since U2 were widely considered artistically relevant that it’s jolting to slap on their new album and discover that these Dublin punks turned stadium behemoths still have something to say.

Actually, they have a lot to say across an LP that is easily their best since How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb, which they released in 2004. It effectively obliterates their many missteps since then. No Line on the Horizon; the Apple giveaway nobody asked for; the Bono and Edge lockdown project where they essentially sprayed graffiti over their back catalogue: it’s as if they never happened.

Carnaval de Luz means Carnival of Light in Spanish and Portuguese, and it is, in essence, the “Unos, dos, tres, catorce” spoken intro to Vertigo, their last hit song of consequence, stretched out into an entire album.

Read the full story at The Irish Times · All coverage of this story