U2 they have launched by surprise “Days Of Ash EP”a six-song EP subtitled “Six Postcards From The Present… Wish We Weren’t Here” and in which they deal with several of the most important conflicts of today, approaching people who fight on the front lines for freedom.
“Days Of Ash EP” is a new album of six songs – actually five songs and a poem set to music – in which the Irish, taking advantage of Ash Wednesday, immerse us in some of the most conflictive issues of today through lyrics that Bono has written focusing on each of them. To complement it, next Tuesday, February 24, a short documentary will be released that will accompany the song “Yours Eternally”, in which they collaborate Ed Sheeran and Taras Topolia.
Apart from the fact that the group continues working on a new album that will be published at the end of this year, the quartet has decided to publish “American Obituary”, “The Tears Of Things”, “Song Of The Future”, “Wildpeace” – by the Israeli poet Yehuda Amichai -, “One Life At A Time” and “Yours Eternally”, as a response to the events that are marking the present day, all of them inspired by “extraordinary and brave people who fight on the front lines for freedom.” Four of the five songs are about people—a mother, a father, a teenage girl—whose lives were brutally cut short, and a fourth is about “a soldier who would rather be singing, but who is willing to die for the freedom of his country.”
“It’s been very exciting to get the four of us back together in the studio over the last year… The songs by ‘Days Of Ash’ They are very different in style and theme from the ones we will include in our album at the end of the year. The songs on this EP couldn’t wait; They were eager to get out into the world. They are songs of rebellion and dismay, of lament. The celebration songs will come later, we’re working on them now… because, despite all the atrocity we see normalized daily on our small screens, there is nothing normal about these crazy, maddening times, and we have to stand up to them before we can have faith in the future again. And in each other. Who needs to hear a new album from us? It just depends on whether we’re making music that we think deserves to be heard. I think these new songs are on par with our best work. We talk a lot about when to release new songs. You don’t always know… the way the world is now, it seems like the right time. Since our beginnings, when we collaborated with Amnesty International or Greenpeace, we have never shied away from taking sides and sometimes that can be a little complicated, there is always some kind of adverse reaction, but it is an important part of who we are and why we continue to exist,” say Bono and Larry Mullen Jr. about these songs.
And now we are going to reproduce all the information that the group has released about these songs and which is complemented with a new issue of their fanzine/publication Propaganda, which you can obtain or read through the group’s networks.
-The EP includes a reading of ‘Wildpeace’ – a poem by Israeli author and poet Yehuda Amichai, performed by Nigerian artist Adeola, from Les Amazones d’Afrique, with music by U2 and Jacknife Lee. “One Life At A Time” is dedicated to Awdah Hathaleen, a Palestinian father of three. A nonviolent activist and English teacher, Awdah was murdered in his West Bank village by Israeli settler Yinon Levi on July 28, 2025. Awdah was a consultant on the Oscar-winning documentary No Other Land, made by Palestinians and Israelis. At his funeral, one of the directors, Basel Adra, spoke of the murder of his friend and the experience of Palestinians being erased “one life after another.” U2 took that phrase and turned it on its head to suggest that a peaceful resolution will be achieved “one lifetime after another.”
-On ‘Yours Eternally’ Bono and The Edge feature vocal collaborations from Ukrainian musician turned soldier Taras Topolia, as well as Ed Sheeran. In the spring of 2022, following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Bono and The Edge traveled to kyiv to play at a subway station at the invitation of President Zelensky. A couple of days earlier, Ed put Taras Topolia, and by extension his band Antytila, in touch with Bono. Bono, Taras and The Edge met for the first time on that subway platform. Since then they have been friends. Taras is the inspiration for ‘Yours Eternally’, a song written in the form of a letter from an active duty soldier with a bold and mischievous spirit on par with that of the Ukraine.
With the income obtained from these songs, donations will be made in support of freedom and human rights to Amnesty International, the CPG (Committee to Protect Journalists) and UNHCR (UN Refugee Agency).
