U2 HAS DROPPED a new EP that explores religious and political themes in a time of “awfulness on our small screens”.

Easter Lily features six songs and comes just one month after the band’s last EP, Days Of Ash, which was released on Ash Wednesday.

The band say they’re still working on a full-length album that plays well live, but they want to respond to the political climate through smaller projects in the meantime.

Easter Lily is described as reflective and personal, exploring themes of friendship, loss and hope.

In a note to U2’s fans, frontman Bono said: “We are in the studio, still working towards a noisy, messy, ‘unreasonably colourful’ album to play LIVE… which is where U2 lives.

“We still look to vivid rock n roll as an act of resistance against all this awfulness on our small screens. These are for sure ‘wilderness years’ for so many of us looking at the mayhem out there in the world.”

Bono said when writing the EP, the band asked themselves questions such as “Are our own relationships up to these challenging times?” and “Can our faith survive the mangling of meaning that those algorithms love to reward?”

He said they explored whether answers to such questions can be found in religion.

The themes explored in songs such as Easter Parade and Resurrection Song were inspired by Patti Smith’s 1978 album Easter.

“We will attempt hoopla and fanfare at a later date to remind the rest of the world we exist but in the meantime… this is between you and us,” Bono concluded.