U2 are one of the biggest bands and one of the biggest brands in rock 'n' roll history, but it's been more than eight years since the widely ignored Songs Of Experience, their last album of new music. Since then, they've done a lot of work to maintain their legacy. The band opened the Sphere. Bono published a memoir and accepted a Presidential Medal Of Freedom. They re-recorded 40 of their songs for 2023's Songs Of Surrender. Now, out of nowhere, there's a new U2 EP. Thankfully, it seemingly did not appear on all of our phones without our knowledge.
Today, U2 released a six-song surprise EP called Days Of Ash. Even though we haven't gotten a new U2 record in years, this one still definitively sounds like a new U2 record. Many of the songs have lyrics specifically about people who have been killed by oppressive forces. Opening track "American Obituary," for instance, has a bit of Achtung Baby-style percussive glossiness along with its lyrics about the murder of Renee Good: "Renee Good, born to die free/ American mother of three/ Seventh day, January/ A bullet for each child, you see.
"Song Of The Future," meanwhile, is dedicated to Sarina Esmailzadeh, the 16-year-old Iranian girl who was beaten to death in a 2022 protest. He's not mentioned by name on the song, but a press release claims that "One Life At A Time" is about Awdah Hathaleen, the Palestinian activist who was murdered by an Israeli West Bank settler last year after serving as a consultant on the Oscar-winning documentary No Other Land. (U2 issued a mealy-mouthed statement about genocide in Palestine last year.)
On "Yours Eternally," U2 team up with Ed Sheeran and with Sheeran's past collaborator Taras Topolia, a Ukrainian soldier and singer of the band Antytila. "The Tears Of Things" is a big ballad with some old-school Edge ringing-guitar action. And then there's "Wildpeace," in which U2 and producer Jacknife Lee soundtrack Nigerian artist Adeola (of of Les Amazones d’Afrique)'s reading of a poem from the late Israeli writer Yehuda Amichai. They even managed to both-sides this EP!
Along with the EP, U2 have brought back Propaganda, the zine that they started publishing in 1986, for a new digital issue and limited print run at independent record stores in Europe and North America.
Here's what Bono says about the new record:
It’s been a thrill having the four of us back together in the studio over the last year… the songs on Days Of Ash are very different in mood and theme to the ones we’re going to put on our album later in the year. These EP tracks couldn't wait; these songs were impatient to be out in the world. They are songs of defiance and dismay, of lamentation. Songs of celebration will follow, we’re working on those now… because for all the awfulness we see normalized daily on our small screens, there’s nothing normal about these mad and maddening times and we need to stand up to them before we can go back to having faith in the future. And each other.
"If you have a chance to hope it’s a duty…” is a line we borrowed from Lea Ypi.
A laugh would be nice too. Thank you.
“Who needs to hear a new record from us?" Larry Mullen Jr. adds. "It just depends on whether we’re making music we feel deserves to be heard. I believe these new songs stand up to our best work."
Stream the Days Of Ash EP below.
The Days Of Ash EP is out now on Island.
