11 New Albums From U2, Howlin Rain, The Infamous Stringdusters & More

U2 issued Carnaval De Luz, their 16th studio album, today through Interscope Records. The 12-track set is the band’s first full-length collection of new material in nine years and follows the 2026 EPs Days Of Ash and Easter Lily. Jacknife Lee produced the record, which features Brian Eno co-writing and playing synthesizer on three songs, Martin Garrix co-writing “Glorify” and Daniel Lanois on pedal steel. Dolly Parton, who died August 25, duets with Bono on the closing track “Torn,” which was her final recorded vocal performance.

“Roll up, roll up, roll up!” Bono said. “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!”

Watermelon, a nine-track covers album from Howlin Rain, arrived today on Silver Current Records. The collection of 1970s deep cuts marks 20 years of the band and features a revamped lineup assembled by frontman Ethan Miller: keyboardist Jonny Niemann, guitarist Jason Soda and bassist Kyre Wilcox join drummer Justin Smith, the lone holdover from recent lineups. Chris Robinson appears on two tracks, while Ty Segall and David Nance each guest on one.

“Rather than curate a record like this with universally favorite hit songs, we wanted [to] draw on more esoteric songs and sometimes obscure artists that were meaningful to us, both of which would tempt further investigation into their strange stories and secret worlds,” Miller said. “In that way the album is a bit of a historical and musical jigsaw puzzle. What ties it all together is our inspired interest in this material, that somehow these underground rabbit holes all linked together for us and showed us a connected musical world unto themselves.”

The Infamous Stringdusters put out Dust The Halls Vol. 2 through Americana Vibes, a second collection of holiday music from the bluegrass group. The first volume was entirely instrumental, but the 10-track follow-up adds vocals to nearly half the songs and includes three originals alongside seasonal staples like “Silent Night” and “Up On The House Top.” Bassist Travis Book contributed two of the new songs, while fiddler Jeremy Garrett found a demo of a song his father wrote with the late Ronnie Bowman. Shawn Lane guests on several tracks.

“It was a really fun record to produce the first time around and there were still a bunch of songs we wanted to include on volume one that couldn’t fit, so we thought why not make a volume two!” guitarist Andy Falco said.

Bassist Anna Butterss, trumpeter John Raymond and drummer Ben Lumsdaine released Beginningless, their first album as a trio, through Northern Spy. The group recorded the album live over two days in a Los Angeles studio with little overdubbing. Raymond estimated they tracked more than 400 minutes of music in that time, all of it improvised, with some moments taking shape as something closer to songs.

Brad Mehldau’s solo piano album Fantasy & Reveries arrived today on Nonesuch Records. The 15-track recording pairs Fantasy For Piano, which Jeremy Denk originally commissioned and Mehldau wrote around the time of Three Pieces After Bach, with the 14 short pieces of Fourteen Reveries. It follows Ride Into The Sun, his 2025 album of Elliott Smith interpretations.

Menahan Street Band returns with Illusions, the instrumental outfit’s fourth album and first in five years, on Diamond West Records. Twenty years after the group formed in Tom Brenneck’s Bushwick apartment, the 10-track record brings in Brazilian arranger Arthur Verocai, who wrote string arrangements for lead single “Palace Of Illusions.”

“The combination of Verocai’s arrangements with Menahan Street Band horn melodies was a total dream for me,” Brenneck said. “I think it took the music to another level of sophistication that we’ve never had before.”

Griselda Records founder Westside Gunn shared Heelmatic, a 16-track album out through Griselda and Mass Appeal. The album follows three mixtapes that were issued in 2025.

“ALBUM OTW AND ITS ALL GRIMEY, DUSTY, SOULFUL, JAZZ INSPIRED mixed with FLYEST SHIT U EVER HEARD IN YA LIFE,” Westside Gunn wrote on social media.

Fucked Up close out their Zodiac album cycle with Year Of The Rooster, a double album released through Tankcrimes. The record is the third and final chapter of the Grass Can Move Stones trilogy, following 2025’s Year Of The Goat and this year’s Year Of The Monkey, and it concludes a series that began with Year Of The Dog in 2006. Guests include Keith Morris, Debsey Wykes, Thurston Moore, John Brannon, Chris Hansell, Mac Kennedy, Graeme Mackinnon, Isla Craig, Annie-Claude Deschênes, Carson McHone, Amy Gottung, Julian Richings, Heidi Hazelton and Zak Quiram.

Jake Bugg’s seventh studio album, Alamo, is out today on Thirty Tigers. The 11-track follow-up to 2024’s A Modern Day Distraction was produced by Jimmy Hogarth and Steve McKewan. Bugg explained his approach to the record:

“After all the years of touring and making records, it just felt like the right time to look inward. The last couple of years have been tough for me, and I’ve had a lot of struggles. I’m trying to navigate those and figure out where they stem from. Alamo was only going to work if I was going to be honest and be as vulnerable as possible. I’ve always had a lot of defences and barriers around me. I thought it was time to bring those down.”

Recorded in Omaha with producer Nate Walcott of Bright Eyes, Homeworld Blue is the second solo album from James Felice of The Felice Brothers. It arrives on Conor Oberst’s Million Stars Records as the follow-up to 2025’s The Little Ones.

Aesop Rock and Blockhead reunite for Trouble Mountain, their first collaborative album since 2021’s Garbology, out today on Rhymesayers Entertainment. The 17-track record draws on the Poconos resort commercials that aired in New York during the pair’s childhoods. Guests include Hanni El Khatib, Baby Dayliner, Open Mike Eagle, Cavalier and 4-Ize.