And let's not hear another arrogant, armchair critic comment that Bono's best lyric writing days are behind him.

U2 have released the 3rd single from their upcoming album and for me it’s 3 for 3. They are 3 great songs and it feels like they are back to their best. I love to see it after they struggled with making new music for quite a few years in my opinion.
Really loved their EPs earlier this year too and delighted to see they have kept that momentum going. Looking forward to a tour announcement now

So what do we think? I love it.

Love the new stuff, it will all be my most played songs of the year.

But lots of people are saying this sound would fit in any of the post 2000s U2 albums and I can’t disagree…

Except for No Line on the Horizon. That album may be forgotten but it really stands out as a different sound in this post 2000s last five albums.

With only the poster to reference so far and the videos.
My guess is a mix of past setups with emphasis on
ZOO TV/Achtung baby. Seating charts will be clue too!
But, please share what you think! link below for Mark Fisher who designed many of the Great stages we have all enjoyed over the years. See link below for more about him. He passed 2013 but, he engineered some of their greatest stages so he is worthy of mention. :-)
(Additional note here: Bring back the Claw!)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Fisher_(architect))

With all of the teaser promotion also including pieces from past tours (Popmart Arch, Elevation Suitcase for example), I'm going to take a big swing. I think U2's next tour isn't going to be a standard format U2 setlist, I think they are going to take a page out of Taylor Swift's book and have mini vingettes of previous tours.

Imagine a 5 song set recreating Red Rocks for their early days; A simple set of 5 or so UF/JT/RH Songs; A trip through Zoo-TV (a carnival isn't complete without a belly dancer), maybe even revisit Pop-Mart; A set of their early 2000-2004 shows where they went back in scale; A few songs from 360; Etc, Etc.

Maybe trying to showcase that they have always been (or strived to be) "The Greatest Show On Earth"

Just a thought.

Top of my head I have Joshua, Iris and Gloria. Give me some!

EDIT: just got a new one: First kid Rattle, second kid Hum

So after a few weeks and a hundred listens I’ve finally got it, when this comes on after silencio and now 3rd behind ‘greatest show’ it turns into a different beast…. I’ve spent all evening playing a 1,2,3 and it’s getting better and better

Greatest show
Silencio
Street of

Less than 60 minutes to go!!

This week's song of the week is the newly released "The Greatest Show on Earth", the third single from U2's upcoming album, Carnival De Luz. Through this multivalent phrase, the band not only announces their upcoming tour in style (and looks back with nostalgia on a long career), but casts the die in terms of a kind of humanistic ethos--"WE were once the greatest show on earth"...

To me, this comes as almost a sequel to one of the band's other recent singles (which came, as well, as a sort of love letter to the audience and playing live): Atomic City, "I'm front row in Las Vegas And there's a big one on tonight." The track also fits the album's "Carnival" ethos--it shares a name with a 1952 technicolor circus film of the same name directed by Cecil B. DeMille.

The song's music video was directed by Anton Corbijn: I'm not sure what is going on there, but it is evocative. Some online have pointed out it might be a sequel to the All I Want Is You music video. The costumes remind of something out of The Seventh Seal.

...

Comments from the Band

"The Greatest Show on Earth"? Now that's a throwdown. It's a dare, to ourselves as much as anyone, to try and have the best night of anybody's life.
A bit of showman, a bit of shaman, a riot of colour, unreasonable guitar, bass and drums, and tunes you can hold onto.
Because if people are gonna show up, we certainly are." (U2.com)

...

"All that said, the band is trying to come up with a radio edit of Bono’s favorite new track, the five-and-a-half-minute “The Greatest Show on Earth.” “It’s maybe our greatest song in a very long time,” he says. “That was a reason to stay in the band.” The slow-burning, IMAX-sized epic takes on a shattered love affair, with some shots at Christian nationalism along the way (“Is this a church of love or fear?/Have we made God feel like a stranger here?”). It aims to capture some of the ecstatic, crooning heartbreak of “You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feelin’,” with a hint of Bertolt Brecht: “Love is a business that works at night/I sold myself for less than was right.” Bono had the title for a long time, but catching Elvis Presley sing “Lovin’ Feelin'” in his friend Baz Luhrmann’s recent concert film helped him crack the elegiac concept for the song: “We were once the greatest show on earth.” “There may be,” he says, unable to help himself, “a version of it that we can get on the radio.” (Bono to Rolling Stone's Brian Hiatt)

...

Lyrics

As usual with newly released songs, there will be no verse by verse analysis this week (that's three now, perhaps something to revisit at some point). Bono's delivery is emotional. I hear callbacks in there to Songs of Experience: "Love is all we have left", Pop: "Love is not what you're thinking of", and even live performances of "Mysterious Ways" "Touch me...Teach me!". The tone reminds me a lot of 80s U2, a bit more restrained and serious than something like "The Little Things", but with the lingering emotional ghost of a "With or Without You".

[Verse 1]
If I couldn’t sing
How love’s the hardest easy thing
And if I couldn’t sing you my life
Hiding here in the spotlight
And if you couldn’t hear me

[Pre-Chorus]
If I couldn’t feel
If I couldn’t feel your touch again
When nerve ends fray
And there’s nothing to say
Not even a prayer
It’s a beautiful night somewhere

[Chorus]
If I couldn’t say it now
Tell me how
If this is love and love is all we’ve got
You can show me what it is
I can show you what it’s not
If this is love don’t act surprised when you get hurt
Even if our dreams lay in the dirt
We were once the grеatest show on earth

[Verse 2]
Is that a smile or a tеar?
Is it all show business here?
The cinema that is stained glass
You’re at the altar at our wedding mass
Is this a church of love or fear?
Have we made God feel like a stranger here?

[Chorus]
Say it now
Tell me how
If this is love and love is all we’ve got
You can show me what it is
I can show you what it’s not
If this is love, we make cathedrals of our hurt
People digging their dreams out of the dirt
We were once the greatest show on earth

[Post-Chorus]
Love is a business that works at night
I sold myself for less than was right
You taught me what I was worth
In the greatest show on earth
Made a profession out of breaking your heart
You call it lies, I call it art
I was some of your best work
We were once the greatest show on earth
Love is a business you shouldn’t trust
Breathe on me, and I’m love, and I’m lust
Forever or a flirt?
The greatest show on earth
The light scatters, things can get worse
These dark matters of the universe
Could not compete with us
We were once the greatest show on earth (lyrics from genius.com)

...

Sources:
U2.com
U2songs.com
U2gigs.com
genius.com
Rolling Stone

Maybe I'm the only one, but I'm 32 years old, U2 fan, Ocarina Of Time Fan AND huge GTA fan and I'm overwhelm... XD My birthday is the November 19th... The Tour announcement and ticket sale (Pressure!) maybe in the next few weeks, Oot will come 05.11. U2's album 13.11. GTA VI on my birthday... It's a really incredible time but I have a totally "sensory overload" in german "Reizüberflutung" XD Anyone else with the same problem? :D

Based on https://www.ticketmaster.com.br/event/u2 and according to google's exchange rates:

GA (cyan): R$790 Brazilian Reais (BRL) is equal to approximately $155.02 USD
Premium GA (blue): R$1,550 Brazilian Reais (BRL) is equal to approximately $304.15 USD
Gold Circle GA (pink): R$1,750 Brazilian Reais (BRL) is equal to approximately $343.51 USD
RED(Zone) (red): R$3,000 Brazilian Reais (BRL) is equal to approximately $588.88-$594.09 USD

Not sure who directed U2’s new video but due to strong depeche mode vibes could suggest Anton Corbijn. Halo + Ghosts Again - In your room moments in the video

After listening to “The Greatest Show On Earth”, i think we have another masterpiece on our hands guys

I mean having channel 32 covers the reduced rent at my 3 yrs/$99 discount, but having this set, at this time, checked more boxes than the dollars represent.

I left a heartfelt note in the composition books during my visits to the Joshua Tree that’s caused a few filmmakers and documentarians to reach out over the last 20 years- and right now, at this time in life, these impromptu shows are every bit as compelling in my personal journey.

This group has an uncanny way of reaching my psyche exactly where, how and when I need it most.

Don’t let the bastards grind you down!

... or could it be set to be the album version like WGRYWH having a 'single version'? I only bring this thought for discussion since the promo music for the tour uses a different mix of TGSOE with heavier emphasis on bass, almost sci-fi like, and Bono mentioned in the Rolling Stone article they were trying to come up with a radio edit for TGSOE (which of course usually means runtime).

Whaddya think?

The teaser they posted earlier this week was in E. The released version is in F. Do we know why? I strongly prefer the teaser version.

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DefJAOhTicB

It’s supposed to be ‘The Greatest Show on Earth’. Which one do you reckon it is? ‘Torn’?

https://shop.u2.com/products/carnaval-de-luz-limited-edition-mirror-maker-vinyl