U2 Drops Surprise EP 'Days of Ash' Addressing Global Political Issues
U2 unexpectedly releases 'Days of Ash,' a six-song EP tackling pressing global issues such as ICE raids, the war in Ukraine, and Israeli-Palestinian conflict, featuring collaborations with Ed Sheeran and others.
U2 has surprised fans with the sudden release of a six-song EP, Days of Ash. The collection fearlessly confronts a range of global political flashpoints, now available on streaming platforms. These include ICE raids in the U.S., the Iranian uprisings, the war in Ukraine, and Israeli settlements in the West Bank.
The six tracks – “American Obituary,” “The Tears of Things,” “Song of the Future,” “Wildpeace,” “One Life at a Time,” and “Yours Eternally” (featuring Ed Sheeran and Taras Topolia) – are accompanied by lyric videos.
"It’s been a thrill having the four of us back together in the studio over the last year,” Bono stated. “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.”
The EP opens with “American Obituary,” a poignant dedication to Renee Good, who was tragically killed by ICE officers in Minneapolis during a protest. Bono sings, “Renee Good born to die free/American mother of three/Seventh day January/A bullet for each child, you see.”
In an interview with the U2 fanzine Propaganda, being relaunched as a digital and print zine, Bono discusses the song's inspiration. “The rhythm of the lyric is a nod to one of my favorite Bob Dylan songs, ‘It’s Alright Ma (I’m Only Bleeding),'" he reveals. “In his song the child is singing to the mother, and in ours the mother is singing to her children: ‘I love you more than hate loves war.’”
“The Tears of Things” draws its title from Richard Rohr's 2025 book, The Tears of Things: Prophetic Wisdom for an Age of Outrage. The song presents an imagined conversation between Michelangelo and his statue, David, reflecting on the ongoing conflict between Israel and Gaza. Bono sings, “If you put a man into a cage and rattle it long enough/A man becomes the kind of rage that cannot be locked up … The tears of things/Let the desert be unfrozen.”
Bono notes the band's connection to Richard Rohr and his insightful writings. “He’s a mystic, a deep thinker,” Bono explains. “[His book] suggests that the greatest of the Jewish prophets found a way to push through their rage and anger at the injustices of the day, until they ended up in tears.”
“Song of the Future” is a moving tribute to 16-year-old Iranian Sarina Esmailzadeh, who was killed by Iranian security forces for participating in the 2022 Women, Life, Freedom movement. Bono reflects, “Here again, we have a priestly class of men whose subjective interpretation of sacred text becomes a club to beat the heads in of anyone who disagree. We all remake God in our own image to some degree, but sadly, it’s much more likely that we create a God of fire and brimstone than a God of ‘love and mercy,’ to quote Brian Wilson.”
“Wildpeace” sets a poem by Israeli poet Yehuda Amichai, read by Nigerian artist Adeola Fayehun, to music arranged by producer Jacknife Lee. Bono shares, “I can hardly listen to [Fayehun]’s voice. It cuts right through me and somehow suggests other conflicts on the African continent just by the lily of her achingly beautiful voice … Sudan, dead God.”
“One Life at a Time” was inspired by the 2025 Oscar-winning documentary No Other Land and written for Palestinian Awdah Hathaleen, killed in his West Bank village. The song's title comes from a line spoken by No Other Land filmmaker Basel Adra at his funeral. “One life at a time is kinda an existential suggestion,” Bono explains. “We can change the world for the better or for the worse … one life at a time.”
Days of Ash concludes with “Yours Eternally,” featuring Ed Sheeran and Ukrainian singer Taras Topolia, who met Edge and Bono during their visit to Ukraine. The lyrics began as a letter to Topolia. “When we told [Ed Sheeran] about this song in a shape of a letter wondering if he could be the voice replying to the letter, he jumped right on it, but with a caveat,” Bono says. “[He said], ‘I love the song, I love Ukraine. But I’d rather not be a part of any political polemic right now.… You’re not going to get me involved in politics, are you?’ ‘No, of course not, Ed.’ I might have been bluffing there.”
The songs are produced by the band’s longtime collaborator Jacknife Lee. U2 drummer Larry Mullen Jr. stated, “Who needs to hear a new record from us? It just depends on whether we’re making music we feel deserves to be heard. I believe these new songs stand up to our best work. We talk a lot about when to release new tracks. You don’t always know … the way the world is now feels like the right moment. Going way back to our earliest days, working with Amnesty or Greenpeace, we’ve never shied away from taking a position, and sometimes that can get a bit messy, there’s always some sort of blowback, but it’s a big side of who we are and why we still exist.”
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