U2 will release Carnaval de Luz, their first album of new songs in nine years, on Nov. 13. The Irish band announced the record today, 50 years to the week after their first rehearsal in Larry Mullen Jr.'s kitchen on Sept. 25, 1976.

"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."

Bono describes the album as "anarchic," and the just-released single "Silencio" backs him up: a concise, raging punk tune that stands among the band's most aggressive recordings. The Suicide-influenced opening track, "Go (Carnaval de Luz)," points in the same direction. "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."

Garret "Jacknife" Lee produced the 12-track album; he has worked with U2 since 2004's How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb. Brian Eno, the band's longtime collaborator, co-wrote and played synths on three tracks, including the opener. Snow Patrol's Johnny McDaid co-wrote the closer "Torn" with the band — a song that carries particular weight, as it features the final vocal performance from Dolly Parton, who died last month. Martin Garrix holds a writing credit on "Glorify," and Ryan Tedder is credited with additional production on "Silencio."

Carnaval de Luz completes a trilogy of sorts. U2 released two surprise EPs this year, Days of Ash and Easter Lily, both produced by Lee, and all three projects connect through the liturgical calendar: carnival precedes Lent and Easter. Together they add up to 24 new songs — the band's most prolific stretch ever.

"Not in all my time working with bands or artists have I seen anybody work as hard, with so much intensity and joy," Lee says. "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 traces back to Mullen's return behind the drum kit. The drummer had been sidelined by a debilitating neck injury that left his future in doubt. "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 leans into the album's carnival theme as a barker: "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!"

Clayton promises a sonic shift too. "The bass, I think, is louder than it's been on the more recent records," he says. "It's always nice to have it up front. And it's going to be fun to play that live."

The Edge rejects any suggestion that five decades in have made the work easier. "We're still the same guys we were making our first album," he says. "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."

Tracklist:

1. "Go (Carnaval de Luz)"
2. "La Reina"
3. "Street of Dreams"
4. "The Mirror Maker (Rosalía)"
5. "Superficiality"
6. "If the World Is at War We Better Not Be"
7. "Silencio"
8. "The Greatest Show on Earth"
9. "Glorify"
10. "Midnight Sunshine"
11. "Can't Stop Us Now"
12. "Torn" (feat. Dolly Parton)

With 24 new songs across three releases in a single year, and a punk-flagged single already out, U2 enter their sixth decade announcing themselves as a band still hungry for the struggle — and with Parton's last recording, Carnaval de Luz will carry a poignancy beyond the band's own story.