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Five decades in and U2 still have the power to confound expectations.
Following in the wake of the surprise one-two punch of the Days Of Ash and Easter Lily EPs earlier this year – six songs apiece, and with as much heft as a lot of albums – comes another dozen songs in what’s turning out be a banner year for a band turning 50 who divide people more quickly than Marmite. It’s easy to troll U2, and fun too, but to still dig this deep sixteen studio albums in is little short of a marvel.
While 2017’s Songs Of Experience managed to be somehow underwhelming and overblown, Carnaval De Luz is the gloriously realised sound of four friends in the studio that hold their musical totems close, but with a fortitude and spirit that can best be described as timeless.
Not least in the choppy, chiming La Reina or the deeply glimmering pop of Superficiality, destined to light up a hundred stadiums worldwide in the next twelve months. They save one of the best until last; the Dolly Parton duet Torn that hangs like a pall of smoke that’s hard to see past.
