U2’s new album features a duet between Bono and Dolly Parton.
The rocker and the country music star sing together on , which is described as a song about broken family ties.
The country music track, which appears on U2’s 16th album, , was co-written by the band, Parton and Snow Patrol star Johnny McDaid.
Parton died in August at the age of 80 following a “brief battle with cancer”.
is the band’s first album of new material since (2017). Its first single, , was released in July.
The record is said to be a collection of 12 songs exploring themes of spirituality, friendship, freedom and endurance “in the face of dark, encroaching forces”.
The announcement comes 50 years after U2 formed when Larry Mullen Jr put a handwritten note on the noticeboard of Mount Temple Comprehensive School in Dublin in September 1976, which read: “Drummer Seeks Musicians To Form Band.”
Speaking about the album, Bono said: “Roll up, roll up, roll up! Bring your purple socks, your broken hearts, your rose-tinted naivety… oh be amazed in the hall of mirrors.
“There will be loud guitars, deep bass, some ecstatic rhythms and, yes, some silver tears will make an appearance!
“Because in the near distance just outside our carnival of light there are all kinds of creatures… the same imagination that brings us our creativity can also bring us monsters.
“So we make the drums louder. We build a bigger fire. We make our stories wilder and funnier.
“We make the melodies sweeter and the songs, they better shine, because if the world is in darkness we better not be.” The Edge said: “It’s a messy, provocative, sacred collection of songs — and features the first-ever use of flat-wound strings on a U2 recording. Just saying.”
U2 is made up of Bono, whose real name is Paul Hewson, The Edge, whose real name is David Evans, Mullen Jr and Adam Clayton.
They are among the world’s best-selling music artists, having sold 170 million records.
will be released on November 13.
