Last month U2 dropped the six-track EP Days of Ash, and despite rave reviews in Ireland – Pitchfork were not too impressed
U2’s newest Days of Ash EP has been handed a blunt verdict by renowned US music publication Pitchfork, who penned a less than impressed review of the latest release by the famed Irish rockers.
Last month the With or Without You rockers dropped the six-track EP, alongside a one-off digital zine, featuring tracks inspired by the “many extraordinary and courageous people fighting on the frontlines of freedom” and marking their first release since 2017.
The politically charged record, penned by the group as an “immediate response to current events”, features five new songs and a poem – American Obituary, The Tears Of Things, Song Of The Future, Wildpeace, One Life At A Time and Yours Eternally with Ed Sheeran and Taras Topolia.
While the record was lauded across the board on their home turf, 2FM’s Dan Hegarty praised the EP as “an impressive body of work”, Pitchfork’s Sam Sodomsky gave the work a 6.0 out of 10, including some choice words in a lengthy review on the site.
The record, Sodomsky says, is a step in the right direction for the group, an out of nowhere release as the quartet continue to work on their new album slated for release later this year, he says the “slapdash artwork and YouTube-rip-quality mix suggest the band was too excited to slow down and consult many outside collaborators.”
While the politically charged underscore of the EP grabbed many U2 fans, like American Obituary which delves into the shocking event the world witnessed in Minneapolis earlier this year, for Sodomsky, it wasn’t a hit.
The reviewer couldn’t get behind The Edge’s “arena-ready power chords”, nor was he enthralled by Bono’s lyrics, penning that “these days, Bono’s political writing can feel like a Veep plot about finding a slogan that will appeal to everybody and offend nobody in the fewest words possible”.
Amid the tracks “swings at zeitgeisty sloganeering and earnest eulogizing and singalong choruses”, Sodomsky points out one line “Our children teach us who to trust”, that he says is a “rare show of humility” for the singer, he says: “Coming from a guy who’s been accused of being preachy since the Reagan administration, it hints at a new level of self-awareness that colors the EP’s strongest turns.”
Adding that it is a “moment of self-deprecation”, because, “let’s face it, in 2026, why would any young person trust these guys? Compared to the Cure—who had a creatively and commercially successful comeback album in 2024—I’m not sure any skeptics will find their gateway with the well-meaning protest music of Days of Ash.”
It isn’t all disdain though, Sodomsky gives the band their dues when he sees fit throughout the review, sharing how “Bono deserves credit for pushing himself to sing both urgently and meaningfully” and that “one of the EP’s simple pleasures is just hearing the band play together again”.
He also hailed The Tears of Things as a “rare recent song they’re willing to let breathe: delivered as an idea they’re developing, not a product they’re testing for maximum impact”.
The EP’s closing track, Yours Eternally, however, is slammed as a “webinar-waiting-room anthem”. The tune sees Bono and The Edge joined on vocals by Ukrainian musician-turned-soldier Taras Topolia, as well as Shape of You hitmaker Ed Sheeran.
The song, written in the form of a letter from a soldier on active duty with a “bold, mischievous spirit to match Ukraine’s”, was born in the spring of 22’ after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine when Bono and The Edge traveled to Kyiv to busk in a metro station at the invitation of President Zelensky.
A couple of days prior to that, Ed connected Taras Topolia, and by extension his band Antytila, with Bono.
Sodomsky hit back at the closing track, calling it a “webinar-waiting-room anthem that finally, fully closes any existing gap between the worst tendencies of this band and Coldplay.”
“And did I mention this band is still actively vying for radio hits? So say hello to Ed Sheeran, who stops by for the closing Yours Eternally,” he wrote.
What do you think? Was U2’s triumphant return everything you had hoped? Let us know in the comments.
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