The band also releases a new single, the punk ranger “Silencio,” and reveals that the album features Dolly Parton’s final vocal performance

U2’s new album features Dolly Parton's final vocal performance.

U2 will release Carnaval de Luz, their first album of new songs in nine years, on Nov. 13, the band announced today. “It’s an extraordinary collection of songs,” bassist Adam Clayton tells Rolling Stone in interviews for an upcoming feature, “and it’s the culmination of the work that everyone has been doing for 50 years.” U2 first played together in Larry Mullen Jr.’s kitchen on Sept. 25, 1976 — 50 years ago this Friday. Bono describes the album as “anarchic,” which is borne out by a just-released new single, the concise, raging punk tune “Silencio.”

The 12-track album, produced by Garret “Jacknife” Lee, who’s been working with U2 since 2004’s How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb, closes with “Torn,” featuring the final vocal performance from Dolly Parton, who died last month. Longtime U2 collaborator Brian Eno co-wrote and played synths on three tracks, including the opener, “Go (Carnaval de Luz).” Snow Patrol’s Johnny McDaid co-wrote “Torn” with Parton and the band, Martin Garrix has a writing credit on the track “Glorify,” and Ryan Tedder is credited with additional production on “Silencio.”

The Suicide-influenced opening track is the wildest U2 recording in years. “It’s a statement of intent,” the Edge says. “Whatever you thought you were gonna hear when you put on the new U2 album, you were not expecting this.”

Along with the album, U2 released two surprise EPs this year, Days of Ash and Easter Lily, that turn out to be conceptually linked to the new album via the liturgical calendar, with carnival preceding Lent and Easter. The three projects add up to 24 new songs. “Not in all my time working with bands or artists have I seen anybody work as hard, with so much intensity and joy,” says Lee, who also produced the EPs. “They are having a fucking blast. They are really enjoying each other. That’s the most they’ve ever recorded in any period of their career, and it’s really good work. I would even say up there with their best. It is unprecedented.”

Much of that energy came from Mullen’s return after a debilitating neck injury. “We hadn’t been in a room together in a studio environment for a long time,” he says. “I couldn’t play. I didn’t think I’d play again. So there was a renewed energy when we got into the studio.”

In the press release, Bono plays a carnival barker, appropriately enough: “Roll up, roll up, roll up! Bring your purple socks, your broken hearts, your rose-tinted naivety.… There will be loud guitars, deep bass, some ecstatic rhythms and, yes, some silver tears will make an appearance!”

“The bass, I think, is louder than it’s been on the more recent records,” Clayton says. “It’s always nice to have it up front. And it’s going to be fun to play that live.”

The Edge says the band worked as hard on the album as anything they’ve ever made: “We’re still the same guys we were making our first album. There’s no complacency. There’s just the same old struggle. And it is, in a great way. I think that’s really important, that it isn’t easy. If it ever got easy, I think the music would sound like that.”

Carnaval de Luz tracklist:“Go (Carnaval de Luz)”“La Reina”“Street of Dreams”“The Mirror Maker (Rosalía)”“Superficiality”“If the World Is at War We Better Not Be”“Silencio”“The Greatest Show on Earth”“Glorify”“Midnight Sunshine”“Can’t Stop Us Now”“Torn” (feat. Dolly Parton)

Taylor Swift in New York in June

The encore is here…Taylor Swift has announced the deluxe version of The Life of a Showgirl. The extended edition of arrives Sept. 25, with four tracks, including the freshly announced “Patient Zero.”

“About a year ago, you guys did a truly unfathomable thing. Something that completely blew my mind… You gave The Life of a Showgirl the biggest first week for an album in history,” Swift wrote on social media. “I took a trip to Sweden to celebrate with [producers] Max and Shellback, my two collaborators on this album. Really we just wanted to reflect and take in how grateful we were for the moment we were in, but there was a studio there and we did what we do when we feel anything at all: We wrote more songs,” she added.

“I hope you love them, because they were born out of pure gratitude for your exuberance for and celebration of the album we made,” Swift ended her note.

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It’s been nearly a year since Swift released her 12th studio album on Oct 3. At the time, the singer insisted that there were only 12 tracks on The Life of a Showgirl. “There’s not a 13th, there’s not other ones coming,” Swift said during an appearance on New Heights, her husband Travis Kelce’s podcast. “Every single song is on this album for hundreds of reasons, you know, and you couldn’t take one out and it’d be the same album. You couldn’t add one. It’s just right,” she said. Swift doubled down: “I wanted to do an album that was so focused on quality and on the theme and everything fitting together like a perfect puzzle, that these 12 songs for my 12th album, I feel like we achieved that, and I’m really happy about that.”

On Tuesday, the superstar shared the news about new single “Patient Zero.” While Swift didn’t initially declare the song a lead single for The Life of a Showgirl deluxe version, fans noticed that the album’s logo appeared under CD single versions on her official website.

The singer’s website also updated from a sparkly orange to a dark gray and featured three CD versions of “Patient Zero.” Each version features a different cover of the singer wearing black. Similarly, in an Instagram post announcing the track, the superstar was also wearing a black high-neck tank top. She also changed her profile picture across social media, which has signified a new era for the singer in the past. By Wednesday, Swift had updated her profile picture with The Life of a Showgirl: The Encore cover.

Tracklist“The Fate of Ophelia”“Elizabeth Taylor”“Opalite”“Father Figure”“Eldest Daughter”“Ruin the Friendship”“Actually Romantic”“Wi$h Li$t”“Wood”“Cancelled!”“Honey”“The Life of a Showgirl”“Patient Zero”“Cleveland!”“Pink Clouding”“Babylon”

The 2026 Polaris Music Prize ceremony, held last night at Massey Hall, saw Angine de Poitrine taking home both of the night’s major awards.

The elusive Saguenay duo won the Polaris Album Prize for Vol. II, the $30,000 prize awarded to Canada’s album of the year based on artistic merit. Soon thereafter, they followed that win by taking the $10,000 SOCAN Polaris Song Prize for “Fabienk,” making Angine de Poitrine the first ever act to win both awards since the song prize was introduced.

The pair accepted the awards at Massey Hall in Toronto on Tuesday night in their now-familiar black-and-white polka-dot costumes and masks. The microtonal math-rock band, whose members perform under the names Khn and Klek, have built much of their public identity around their extraterrestrial mythology and refusal to reveal their faces.

The SOCAN Song Prize came with a $10,000 award to be divided among the song’s Canadian performers and credited Canadian songwriters. “Fabienk” was selected over songs by Charlotte Cornfield, PUP, Patrick Watson and Martha Wainwright, and Charlotte Day Wilson.

The evening also revealed the two winners of the Slaight Family Polaris Heritage Prize, which recognizes significant Canadian albums released before the Polaris Music Prize was established. The Watchmen were honoured for their 1992 debut McLaren Furnace Room, while the late Willie Dunn received the designation for his self-titled 1971 album.

The ceremony featured performances from most of this year's album short list, including Angine de Poitrine themselves, Aquakultre, Begonia, Bibi Club, Charlotte Cornfield, Beverly Glenn-Copeland with Elizabeth Copeland, Les Louanges and Tanya Tagaq. Slash Need also performed an interpretation of Peaches' No Lube So Rude.

Godspeed You! Black Emperor are adding another Toronto date to their 2027 Canadian run, with the Montréal post-rock institution announcing a second show at the Danforth Music Hall after the first one sold out.

The band will now play the Toronto venue on February 26 and 27, 2027. The newly added February 26 performance goes on sale immediately, according to the announcement, while the original February 27 date is already sold out.

The two Toronto concerts follow a February 21 appearance at Québec City's Théâtre Capitole, being presented as part of Phoque OFF.

The band, which rose to prominence at the turn of the millenium and helped solidify Montréal's indie music ecosystem, do not tour extensively very much these days, so these shows are highly anticipated. Their sprawling instrumental compositions, extended crescendos and notoriously immersive live presentation have made the group one of Montréal's most influential experimental exports.

The Canadian dates follow a handful of international performances, including shows in Buenos Aires and São Paulo in November, before the band heads to Santiago, Chile, for the Fauna Primavera festival. A July 2027 appearance at Montana's Fire in the Mountains festival is also currently listed.

Godspeed's most recent album is 2024's NO TITLE AS OF 13 FEBRUARY 2024 28,340 DEAD, a record whose title references the reported Palestinian death toll in Gaza as of the date specified. Since their very beginning, Godsped You! Black Emperor have had a longstanding practice of folding political concerns into its music, artwork and live presentation.

Taylor Swift attends the Songwriters Hall of Fame 55th Annual Induction and Awards Gala at Marriott Marquis Hotel on June 11, 2026 in New York City.

Taylor Swift is zeroed in on making new music. The superstar just announced a new single “Patient Zero,” which arrives on Sept. 25

“I’ve been impatiently waiting to tell you that my brand new single “Patient Zero” will be out on September 25 (!!!!!!!!!!!!),” the singer wrote on her social media accounts.

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According to Swift’s website, the new track is related to her most recent album The Life of a Showgirl but has not officially been described as a bonus track. The singer’s website also updated from a sparkly orange to a dark gray and featured three new CD single versions of “Patient Zero.” Each version features a different cover of the singer wearing black. Similarly, in an Instagram post announcing the track, the superstar was also wearing a black high-neck tank top. She also changed her profile picture across social media, which has signified a new era for the singer in the past.

The news comes after Swift spent the last 24 hours ramping up her Easter eggs. On Monday, Sept. 21, a third piece of paper appeared on the “My Letter” page of Swift’s website underneath the letter she wrote in May 2025 and the original Showgirl track list. Some believed it would be an announcement for the re-recording of Taylor Swift, her self-titled debut which celebrates its 20th anniversary this year.

On Tuesday morning, the singer updated her Instagram bio to read, “And, baby, that’s sh0w business f0r y0u.” Similarly, lyrics from Showgirl were updated on Apple Music with words using the letter “O” swapped for zeroes.

“Patient Zero” marks the second bit of new music from Swift this year. In June, she released “I Knew It, I Knew You” as part of the Toy Story 5 soundtrack. The new song will arrive on the heels of an exciting achievement for Swift. On Sunday, she will be honored at the MTV Video Music Awards with the inaugural Artist Director Honors award.

Nearly 50 years after the Battersea Power Station appeared on the cover of Pink Floyd‘s Animals, Apple has transformed the decommissioned building into a music venue.

Apple Music Hall will function as both a live music space and production facility, where musicians can record their performance on multitrack. The venue boasts a 38-foot wide stage, a 48-speaker spatial sound system, 16 or more cameras, and a 600-capacity crowd. Essentially, artists can exit with a Spatial Audio recording, a broadcast-ready mix, and multicamera video from a single show.

“Apple’s deep love for music dates all the way back to the very beginning, from the launch of the iPod to the long-running iTunes Music Festival to the debut of Apple Music,” Oliver Schusser, Apple’s vice president of Apple Music and International Content, said in a statement. “Today, with the opening of Apple Music Hall, we are once again taking an unprecedented step further in our commitment to artists and fans by supporting live music in ways only Apple can do.”

Animals was released on Jan. 21, 1977, and its legendary cover — the Battersea Power Station, with a George Orwell-esque inflatable pig seen floating in the sky — symbolized industrial greed and the voracious appetites of capitalism (famously, the pig balloon flew away).

The image was created by Hipgnosis Studios’ Storm Thorgerson, and assisted by Aubrey ‘Po’ Powell, who updated the cover for the Animals 2018 Remix in 2022. “Animals is one of my favorite albums by Pink Floyd just because of the stories attached,” Powell recalled in 2022. “I remember going to Battersea Power Station and it was a dump. It was full of coal and debris and broken cars. It was just absolutely horrid. I knocked on the door and a lad answered. I said I was looking for someone important and the chap went, ‘Well, thats me,’ and I said, ‘I want to fly a pig.'”

Performances at Apple Music Hall will be livestreamed globally, while fans can access tickets on the venue’s website.