Songs Reflect Contemporary Anxieties in New Collection

U2 has released a politically charged EP titled “Days Of Ash,” with frontman Bono describing the five-track collection as “reactions to present day anxieties.” The EP, which launched on Ash Wednesday, represents a departure from the band’s upcoming album expected later this year.

The Irish rock veterans simultaneously released a special edition of their magazine “Propaganda,” featuring interviews with band members and lyrics from the new songs. This revival of the publication, which originally debuted in 1986 as part of punk-era DIY culture, comes as a 52-page companion piece available in both digital and print formats.

“It’s been a thrill having the four of us back together in the studio over the last year,” Bono said in a statement. “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.”

The collection consists of five tracks that focus on individuals whose lives were cut short or dramatically altered by violence and injustice. “American Obituary,” the opening track, references the January 7 shooting of civilian Renee Good by a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer in Minnesota. Bono described it as “a song of fury… but more than that, a song of grief. Not just for Renee, but for the death of an America that at the very least would have an inquiry into her killing.”

“The Tears Of Things” examines how to live compassionately during times of violence through the lens of Jewish prophetic writings, while imagining a conversation between Michelangelo’s David and his creator about refusing to become like one’s enemies.

“Song of the Future” honors Sarina Esmailzadeh, a 16-year-old who participated in Iran’s Woman, Life, Freedom movement in 2022 following the death of Jina Mahsa Amini. Esmailzadeh died from injuries sustained during her detention by Iranian security forces.

The EP also includes a reading of “Wildpeace,” a poem by Israeli author Yehuda Amichai, and “One Life At A Time,” dedicated to Awdah Hathaleen, a Palestinian father and teacher killed by an Israeli settler in the West Bank last year.

The final track, “Yours Eternally,” features collaborations with Ed Sheeran and Ukrainian musician-turned-soldier Taras Topolia. Written as a letter from a soldier on active duty, the song accompanies a documentary film directed by Ukrainian filmmaker Ilya Mikhaylus. The film, capturing the lives of soldiers on Ukraine’s frontlines, will be released on February 24, marking four years since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

In “Propaganda,” Bono discussed his collaboration with Sheeran: “Only in the last few years have we gotten to know Ed and his wife Cherry. Ed is a whirling dervish of a talent. High energy which he can turn on easier than he can turn off. I see a lot of my younger self in Ed.” He added that they “wrote songs into the small hours” and “there might have been a certain amount of Guinness involved.”

The EP represents a contrast to the band’s forthcoming album, which Bono describes as having a “defiantly joyful feel to take on these anxious times” and “a very different kind of musical mood and narrative.”

This release follows Bono’s recent political engagements, including receiving the Presidential Medal of Freedom in the U.S. and speaking out on the Israel-Palestine conflict, notably calling for the release of Palestinian prisoner Marwan Barghouti from Israeli jail and criticizing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s actions as “uncharted territory.”

The politically charged EP reinforces U2’s long history of engaging with social issues, particularly American politics. As Bono noted, “U2’s been banging on about America most of our artistic life… Americans for the most part have given U2 and me in particular permission to mouth off.”