LAST UPDATE | 18 Feb

U2 HAS RELEASED a politically-charged six-track EP titled Days of Ash.

The new EP is a “self-contained” collection of five new songs and one poem. One of the tracks, Yours Eternally, features Ed Sheeran and Ukrainian singer Taras Topolia.

The EP has been described by the band as “an immediate response to current events and inspired by the many extraordinary and courageous people fighting on the frontlines of freedom”.

It comes in advance of a new album that will be released later this year.

One of the songs, American Obituary, is about the fatal shooting of US woman Renée Good by ICE agents in Minneapolis. 

“Renée Good born to die free/American mother of three/Seventh day January/A bullet for each child, you see,” the song includes.

Song of the Future honours Sarina Esmailzadeh, a 16-year-old Iranian girl who was beaten to death by Iranian security forces while protesting in 2022, according to Amnesty International.

The song says: “Sarina Sarina/She’s the song of the future/Playing in my mind/Gotta know gotta find a way to get to her.”

Yours Eternally is about the war in Ukraine, sung from the perspective of a Ukrainian solider, and One Life at a Time is written for Awdah Hathaleen, a Palestinian father of three who was killed in his village in the West Bank by an Israeli settler.

The EP includes a reading of ‘Wildpeace’ – a poem by Israeli author and poet Yehuda Amichai – by Nigerian artist Adeola of Les Amazones d’Afrique, with music by U2 and Jacknife Lee.

Speaking alongside the announcement of the EP, Bono said, “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 normalised 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.”

Drummer Larry Mullen Jr, who has made his return to the band after time spent recovering from neck surgery, said: “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.”