U2 has returned to make a strong musical statement. On Ash Wednesday (Feb. 18), the rockers released their new EP, Days Of Ash. The six-track project, inspired by current political events, includes five new songs and a reading of “Wildpeace”—a poem by Israeli author and poet Yehuda Amichai—by Nigerian artist Adeola of Les Amazones d’Afrique and Jacknife Lee.
Ed Sheeran and Taras Topolia, the Ukrainian singer-turned-soldier whom U2 performed with in a Kyiv bomb shelter in 2022, appear on “Yours Eternally.” The tune will be accompanied by a mini-documentary directed by Ukrainian cinematographer and filmmaker Ilya Mikhaylus, which will be released on February 24—the fourth anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The film showcases the daily lives of soldiers fighting on the frontlines of the war.
“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,” Bono said in a statement. “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.”
Along with the release of Days of Ash, U2 also resurrected their Propaganda magazine in limited-edition print and digital forms. Titled U2 – Days Of Ash: Six Postcards From The Present… Wish We Weren’t Here, the 52-page publication includes song lyrics, notes from the band members, a Q&A with Bono, and interviews with the Yours Eternally director Ilya Mikhaylus, film producer Pyotr Verzilov, and Taras Topolia.
Propaganda, born out of the punk-era D.I.Y. zine culture, was first launched in 1986 through the letterboxes of U2 fans worldwide.
U2’s as-yet-untitled new album will follow 2023’s Songs of Surrender and is slated for a late 2026 release. Last October, the band received the Woody Guthrie Prize, which honors those who embody the belief that music can be a force for social justice and change. Bono and The Edge accepted the prize on behalf of the band at a ceremony hosted by the Woody Guthrie Center and held at Cain’s Ballroom in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
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