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THIS was a surprise. On Ash Wednes\u00ad\u00adday, U2 released their first collection of new songs since 2017, appropriately titled Days of Ash<\/em>. The EP contains five songs and a poem alongside a one-off digital version of their fan-club magazine, Propaganda, <\/em>celebrating its 40th year. A new album is due in late 2026, but these songs represent, to quote Bono, \u201cthe moment we wish we weren\u2019t in, but are\u201d.<\/p>\n They\u2019ve chosen all the hot potatoes: ICE (\u201cAmerican Obituary\u201d), Iran (\u201cSong of the Future\u201d), Ukraine (\u201cYours Eternally\u201d), the Holocaust (\u201cThe Tears of Things\u201d), and Palestine (\u201cOne Life at a Time\u201d). To many, this will appear as a political record. But U2 have always mixed up the personal, the political, and the spiritual. The songs are centred on the death of three individuals \u2014 Renee Nicole Macklin Good (US), Sarina Esmailzadeh (Iran), and Awdah Hathaleen (Palestine) \u2014 and the life of an army medic and rock singer, Taras Topolia (Ukraine).<\/p>\n Bono is still having conversations with God. \u201cAmerican Obituary\u201d, the angriest of all of the songs, has him talking about the death of Renee Good: \u201cI\u2019m not mad at you, Lord \/ You\u2019re the reason I was there. . . Could you stop a bullet in mid-air? . . . 3 bullets blast, 3 babies kissed \/ Renee the domestic terrorist???\u201d U2 believe \u201cAmerica will rise against\/The people of the lie.\u201d \u201cAt the heart of evil,\u201d Bono remarks, \u201cthere\u2019s the ability to easily lie, and worse, believe our own lies.\u201d U2\u2019s love-hate relationship with America continues \u2014 \u201cI love you more \/ Than hate loves war\u201d \u2014 but, the refrain continues, \u201cthe power of the people is so much stronger than the people in power.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThe Tears of Things\u201d, based on Fr Richard Rohr\u2019s recent book, examines how the Jewish prophets \u201cfound a way to push through the rage and anger at the injustices of the day\u201d. Bono warns that \u201cwhen people go round talking to God \/ It always ends in tears.\u201d The real indictment is the silence of the Chris\u00ad\u00adtian Church during the Jewish Holocaust, \u201cthe silent song of Christen\u00addom \/ So loud everybody hears\u201d. Bono is talking to God again: \u201cWas it you, Lord, I was listening to? \/ You didn\u2019t say much.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cSong of the Future\u201d is dedicated to the 16-year-old Sarina Esmail\u00adzadeh, murdered by government forces for protesting as part of the \u201cWomen, Life, Freedom\u201d movement that emerged after the kill\u00ad\u00ading of Mahsa Amini in 2022 for not wearing the hijab according to regulated standards. \u201cSarina, Sarina \/ She\u2019s the song of the future \/ Playing in my mind \/ Gotta find a way to get to her \/ She\u2019s holding up the sign.\u201d<\/p>\n The late Israeli poet, novelist, and playwright Yehuda Amichai talks of \u201cWildpeace\u201d: \u201cNot the peace of a ceasefire \/ Not even the vision of the wolf and the lamb\u201d. The poem wants peace \u201cWithout the big noise of beating swords into ploughshares\u201d. There is the haunting image of orphans\u2019 howling being passed from one generation to the next: \u201cAs in a relay race \/ the baton never falls.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cOne Life at a Time\u201d documents the killing by an Israeli settler of Awdah Hathaleen, a non-violent activist, shot in the chest in front of his home village\u2019s community centre in the Hebron Hills of the West Bank. The settler was freed a couple of days later. Hathaleen was a cameraman on the Oscar-winning film No Other Land<\/em>, made by four Israeli and Palestinian filmmakers. Basel Adra, one of the four, commented: \u201cThis is how Israel erases us: one life at a time.\u201d The line resonated with Bono and led to the song: \u201cOne life at a time \/ If there\u2019s no law, there\u2019s no crime \/ No crime?\u201d<\/p>\n The final song, \u201cYours Eternally\u201d (featuring Ed Sheeran), is about a man writing a letter from the Ukrainian front line. Taras Topolia, singer with the Ukrainian rock band Antytila, met Bono and The Edge when they busked in Kyiv subways not long after the Russian invasion. Sheeran gave Bono Mr Topolia\u2019s number. But, when Bono called, Mr Topolia had to cut him off as he was \u201con manoeuvres and not exactly in a place to discuss music!\u201d It is dark humour, but it concentrates on essentials: \u201cForget whatever doesn\u2019t fit \/ Regret none of it \/ Don\u2019t bet \/ On getting rid of me \/ Yours eternally.\u201d<\/p>\n Musically, it\u2019s circa \u201cExperience + Innocence\u201d with some great drumming from Larry Mullen after his break for surgery. Lyrically, it feels like the spirit of War<\/em> (U2\u2019s 1983 breakthrough album): a slap in the face for the great and powerful, a reminder that the little people, together, can be the change they want to make happen. \u201cThe songs being presented here\u201d, Bono quips, \u201care all reactions to present-day anxieties . . . all likely to offend or annoy some parties, but that\u2019s kind of our job!\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n