Dolly Parton is set to feature posthumously on U2’s new album in a duet with Bono.
The country song, titled “Torn”, explores broken family ties and was co-written by the Irish group, Parton, and Snow Patrol member Johnny McDaid.
The late country icon Parton passed away in August at the age of 80 following a "brief battle with cancer".
Carnaval De Luz marks the band’s 16th album and their first collection of new material since 2017’s Songs Of Surrender. Its first single, “Street Of Dreams”, was issued in July.
The 12-track record reportedly explores 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 pinned a handwritten note to 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.
Carnaval De Luz will be released on 13 November.
