'U2 - Days of ash', the Irish band's surprise new ep release

U2 surprisingly released, on this Ash Wednesday, 'U2-Days Of Ash', the band's new EP, which includes five new songs and a poem. It is a side project to the album due at the end of 2026, dictated by the need for an immediate response to global events and inspired by the many extraordinary and courageous people fighting on the front lines for freedom. Four of the five tracks are about people whose lives have been brutally cut short in the US, Israel and Iran. One (Ukrainian) soldier who would rather sing, but is ready to die for the freedom of his country. These are the song titles: American Obituary, The Tears Of Things, Song Of The Future, Wildpeace, One Life At A Time and Yours Eternally (in collaboration with Ed Sheeran & Taras Topolia). "It was exciting to get all four of us together in the studio over the past year....

The songs on Days of Ash are very different in atmosphere and theme from the ones we will include on our album later this year,' Bono said. 'These songs on the EP could not wait; they were eager to be released to the world. They are songs of defiance and dismay, of lament. They will be followed by songs of celebration, we're working on that now... because despite all the terrible things we see normalised every day on our little screens, there's nothing normal about these crazy, exasperating times and we have to fight back before we can trust in the future again. And in each other'.

Larry Mullen Jr. added: 'I think these new songs live up to our best work. Since our beginnings, when we were working with Amnesty or Greenpeace, we've never hesitated to take a stand and sometimes that can create some problems, because there's always some sort of backlash, but it's an important part of who we are and why we still exist." And The Edge explained: 'We believe in a world where borders are not forcibly erased. In which culture, language and memory are not silenced by fear. In which the dignity of a people is non-negotiable. This conviction is not temporary. It is not a political fashion. It is the ground on which we stand".