U2 have released their first music since 2017.
The six-track EP, Days of Ash , has been released today ahead of the fourth anniversary of Russia's invasion of Ukraine next week. The EP is being released ahead of a new album later in 2026.
The release is described as a "self-contained collection of five new songs and a poem". The track list includes ‘American Obituary’, ‘The Tears Of Things’, ‘Song Of The Future’, ‘Wildpeace’, ‘One Life At A Time’ and ‘Yours Eternally’ (ft. Ed Sheeran & Taras Topolia).
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". The band explained that "four of the five tracks are about individuals – a mother, a father, a teenage girl – whose lives were brutally cut short" and "a soldier who’d rather be singing but is ready to die for the freedom of his country".
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 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.
“'If you have a chance to hope it’s a duty…' is a line we borrowed from Lea Ypi. A laugh would be nice too. Thank you.”
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