U2 is roaring back with the surprise release today (Feb. 18) of Days of Ash, a six-track Interscope EP that will presage a separate new studio album in late 2026. It is described as “an immediate response to current events and inspired by the many extraordinary and courageous people fighting on the frontlines of freedom.”
Among them are “a mother, a father, a teenage girl – whose lives were brutally cut short. A soldier who’d rather be singing but is ready to die for the freedom of his country.” One track, “Yours Eternally,” features Ed Sheeran and Ukrainian rock vocalist Taras Topolia. Lyric videos for all can be seen here.
“It’s been a thrill having the four of us back together in the studio over the last year,” says Bono. “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.”
“American Obituary” is about the recent shooting death of Renee Good in Minneapolis by ICE agents, while “The Tears of Things” is said to examine “how one can live compassionately in a time of violence and despair.” “Song of the Future” concerns freedom for women in Iran, “One Life at a Time” was penned by Palestinian war casualty Awdah Hathaleen and “Wildpeace” is a reading of a poem by Israeli author/poet Yehuda Amichai from Nigerian artist Adeolaof Les Amazones d’Afrique, set to music by U2 and producer Jacknife Lee.
On Feb. 24, the band will release a short documentary about “Yours Eternally” from Ukrainian cinematographer and filmmaker Ilya Mikhaylus to commemorate the fourth anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
“Who needs to hear a new record from us? It just depends on whether we’re making music we feel deserves to be heard,” says drummer Larry Mullen Jr. “I believe these new songs stand up to our best work. We talk a lot about when to release new tracks. You don’t always know. The way the world is now feels like the right moment. Going way back to our earliest days, working with Amnesty or Greenpeace, we’ve never shied away from taking a position and sometimes that can get a bit messy. There’s always some sort of blowback, but it’s a big side of who we are and why we still exist.”
Offers the Edge, “We believe in a world where borders are not erased by force. Where culture, language and memory are not silenced by fear. Where the dignity of a people is not negotiable. This belief isn’t temporary. It isn’t political fashion. It’s the ground we stand on. And we stand there together.”
