U2 Return With Politically Charged ‘Days of Ash’ EP
U2 have released a new six-track EP, Days of Ash, marking the band’s first collection of newly written songs since 2017. Frontman Bono uses the release to address a range of current events, with the songs focusing on specific deaths and conflicts, and the group also confirming that a separate full-length album is due later in 2026.
The EP opens with “American Obituary,” written about Renee Good, a Minneapolis mother of three who was killed on 7 January while protesting against ICE activity, with Bono also calling for an independent inquiry into her death in an accompanying fan-zine interview.
Elsewhere on the EP, U2 address Iran’s Women, Life, Freedom movement on “Song of the Future,” naming Sarina Esmailzadeh, who died in 2022 aged 16 after being beaten during protests, according to an Amnesty International investigation cited in the report. “One Life at a Time” is about Palestinian activist Awdah Hathaleen, who was killed in the West Bank in July 2025, while “Yours Eternally” features guest vocals from Ed Sheeran and references Ukrainian musician-turned-soldier Taras Topolia.
The release follows prior moments where Bono has taken political positions, including when he criticised Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu in earlier remarks covered by Alternative Nation.
In the fanzine accompanying Days of Ash, The Edge wrote that the band’s stance “isn’t political fashion,” while drummer Larry Mullen Jr said U2 have long accepted that taking positions can bring “blowback.” Bono said the EP’s themes of “defiance and dismay” would be followed by a separate new album later this year with a “carnival vibe” and a more “defiantly joyful feel.”
