U2 Reunites Its Original Lineup for “Street of Dreams,” a Mexico City-Shot Prelude to a New Era

Fifty years on, U2 return with Larry Mullen Jr. back behind the kit and a Mexico City video shoot interrupted by rain.

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• A First Taste of the Next Chapter
• Mexico City, Rain, and a Rooftop Bus
• Larry Mullen Jr.’s Return Raises the Stakes
• What Comes Next

U2 released “Street of Dreams” on July 7, 2026, marking the band’s first new original material since 2023 and the lead single from a currently untitled studio album, its first full collection of new songs in nine years. In the interim, the band had issued releases drawing on older material rather than new writing, including the double A-side “Country Mile” / “Picture of You (X+W)” and “Happiness,” alongside two EPs earlier in 2026, none of which constituted a fresh studio full-length.

The track was produced by Jacknife Lee, the longtime convincer behind 2004’s How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb, the band’s 2006 Green Day collaboration on the Skids cover “The Saints Are Coming,” and the 2023 single “Atomic City.” Beyond production duties, Lee contributed keyboards, programming, and additional guitar to the recording, with engineering handled by Duncan Stewart, mixing by Tom Elmhirst, and mastering by John Webber. The song’s lyrics lean into themes of justice, compassion, and open doors, delivered in both English and Spanish over the anthemic guitar work long associated with the band, with one line translating roughly to “the street, street of dreams.”

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The single arrived alongside a video filmed across Mexico City between May 11 and May 15, where the band drew crowds performing from the roof of a graffiti-covered bus near Plaza Santo Domingo. Footage and clips from the shoot circulated for weeks beforehand through the band’s own channels, effectively previewing the song ahead of its formal release. Production was disrupted when heavy rain and thunder knocked out a generator on set; the band improvised by moving to a neighbor’s balcony, leading the gathered crowd through singalongs of “Vertigo” and “Desire” while the crew waited out the storm, with the neighbor described in the band’s own account as bewildered but welcoming.

The Mexico City shoot doubled as a backdrop for the band’s involvement with the Street Child World Cup, held alongside the FIFA World Cup, and a companion short film built around the song, starring David Beckham, was released through the Street Child United charity in the same window. That four-minute film centers on a young girl’s determination to keep playing soccer, using “Street of Dreams” as its soundtrack.

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“Street of Dreams” also marks a view return for drummer Larry Mullen Jr., rejoining Bono, The Edge, and Adam Clayton as a full unit for the first time in several years of recorded output, having sat out portions of the band’s recent touring and recording cycles. The timing carries added weight: the release lands roughly two months ahead of the fiftieth anniversary of U2’s formation in September 2026, dated to Mullen’s handwritten noticeboard ad at Dublin’s Mount Temple Comprehensive School that first drew the four members together as teenagers.

Framed against that anniversary, Mullen’s presence behind the kit has been read by outlets covering the release as a symbolic full-circle moment as much as a musical one, given that his invitation is what created the band in the first place.

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The band and its label have described the forthcoming album only as U2’s next studio release, expected later in 2026, following two EPs of new material issued earlier in the year. It would stand as the band’s first collection of all-new songs since 2017’s Songs of Experience, setting aside 2023’s Songs of Surrender, a re-recorded collection of earlier catalog tracks tied to Bono’s memoir. A formal album announcement, including title and release date, has not yet been made, though press materials describe the project as planned for the second half of 2026. Coverage of the single’s rollout, including additional detail on the video shoot, was first reported by NME.