Hear U2’s Posthumous Dolly Parton Duet

U2 have released their new album Carnaval de Luz, and with it their duet with the late Dolly Parton. The LP’s closing track, “Torn” is supposedly the last song Parton recorded before her death in August. It was co-written with Snow Patrol’s Johnny McDaid, and features steadfast U2 collaborator Daniel Lanois on pedal steel. “Torn apart these loving hearts that beat and break the same,” Parton and Bono sing atop a gentle synth pulse and spare, echoing drums. “We share a house divided and the blood that fills our veins.” Listen below.

Carnaval de Luz marks U2’s first studio album since 2017’s Songs of Experience. It was preceded this year by two surprise EPs—Days of Ash and Easter Lily. “Torn” may be Dolly Parton’s final song, but it won’t be the last Dolly Parton song we ever hear. There apparently exists an unheard recording, titled “My Place in History,” sealed away in a vault at Dollywood, to be unsealed on Parton’s 100th birthday in 2046.

Read Sam Sodomsky’s new review of Carnaval de Luz.

Walden Green is a music writer and cultural critic who joined Pitchfork in 2024. A graduate of the University of Pennsylvania, his work has appeared in Dirt, The Fader, and Philadelphia. He lives in New York. ... Read More