U2 Unveils 'Easter Lily' EP, Exploring Personal Territory and Faith in Troubled Times

U2 has released Easter Lily, their second EP of 2026. The six-track project follows Days of Ash, which was released last month. The new EP features a collaboration with Brian Eno.

Where Days of Ash focused on songs dedicated to deceased activists like Renée Good and Awdah Hathaleen, Easter Lily explores more personal themes. The opening track, “Song for Hal,” is a tribute to U2’s late friend and producer, Hal Willner, who passed away in 2020 due to COVID-19 complications. Bono mentioned that the title is a nod to Patti Smith’s 1978 album Easter, which gave him “so much hope” when he first heard it as a young man.

Bono’s statement reflects on the EP’s themes: “With Easter Lily, we ended up asking very personal questions like: Are our own relationships up to these challenging times? How hard do you fight for friendship? Can our faith survive the mangling of meaning that those algorithms love to reward? Is all religion rubbish and still ripping us apart…? Or are there answers to find in its crevices? Are there ceremonies, rituals, dances that we might be missing in our lives?”

Eno produced the EP’s closing track, “Coexist (I Will Bless the Lord at All Times?),” written for parents of children in war zones. In 2025, all four band members—Bono, The Edge, Adam Clayton, and Larry Mullen, Jr.—shared individual statements condemning Israel’s starvation of Gaza.

Like Days of Ash, Easter Lily is accompanied by a digital edition of the band’s Propaganda zine. This issue includes notes from The Edge, a conversation between Bono and Franciscan friar Richard Rohr, an essay from Clayton, and behind-the-scenes photos by Mullen, Jr. It also features song lyrics and a memorial essay on Willner.

Both EPs precede a new album from the band, expected in late 2026. U2's last full-length album was Songs of Surrender in 2023. “We are in the studio, still working towards a noisy, messy, ‘unreasonably colourful’ album to play LIVE…which is where U2 lives,” Bono said. “We still look to vivid rock n roll as an act of resistance against all this awfulness on our small screens. These are for sure ‘wilderness years’ for so many of us looking at the mayhem out there in the world.”

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Easter Lily:

01 Song for Hal
02 In a Life
03 Scars
04 Resurrection Song
05 Easter Parade
06 COEXIST (I Will Bless The Lord At All Times?)

Bono:

"We are in the studio, still working towards a noisy, messy, 'unreasonably colourful’ album to play LIVE… which is where U2 lives. We still look to vivid rock n roll as an act of resistance against all this awfulness on our small screens. These are for sure ‘wilderness years’ for so many of us looking at the mayhem out there in the world.

It’s a time that has our band digging deeper into our lives to find a wellspring of songs to try meet the moment… With Easter Lily we ended up asking very personal questions like: Are our own relationships up to these challenging times? How hard do you fight for friendship? Can our faith survive the mangling of meaning that those algorithms love to reward? Is all religion rubbish and still ripping us apart…? Or are there answers to find in its crevices? Are there ceremonies, rituals, dances that we might be missing in our lives? From the rite of Spring to Easter and its promise of rebirth and renewal… Patti Smith’s album Easter gave me so much hope when it was released in 1978. I wasn’t yet 18. The title is a nod to her.

We will attempt hoopla and fanfare at a later date to remind the rest of the world we exist but in the meantime… this is between you and us."

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