U2 Releases Surprise EP, ‘Days of Ash’

U2 has surprised fans with a brand-new EP, Days of Ash, coinciding with Ash Wednesday.

“These EP tracks couldn’t wait; these songs were impatient to be out in the world,” U2 frontman Bono said in a statement. “They are songs of defiance and dismay, of lamentation.”

The six-track EP addresses a variety of political issues both in the US and abroad, in line with the band’s history of being outspoken activists.

“Four of the five tracks are about individuals – a mother, a father, a teenage girl whose lives were brutally cut short – and a soldier who’d rather be singing but is ready to die for the freedom of his country,” the band’s website reads.

The EP also includes the poem “Wildpeace,” read by Nigerian artist Adeola of Les Amazones d’Afrique and written by Israeli writer Yehuda Amichai. The final track, “Yours Eternally,” features Ed Sheerhan as a guest writer and vocalist, as well as Ukrainian musician Taras Topolia. A documentary to accompany the song, by Ukrainian filmmaker Ilya Mikhaylus, will be released next week.

“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,” longtime drummer Larry Mullen Jr. said in a press release.

Days of Ash also marks the return of Mullen, and it’s the first new music from U2 since they released “Atomic City” in 2023. The EP is also accompanied by a new edition of Propaganda, a digital fan magazine, titled “U2 − Days of Ash: Six Postcards from the Present … Wish We Weren’t Here.” The zine will have a limited-edition print run and will include lyrics, notes from the band, and an interview with Topolia.

U2 is also working on a new full-length album to be released later this year. In the statement announcing Days of Ash, Bono also noted the songs “are very different in mood and theme” compared to the other forthcoming material. The album will be their first full-length release of new material since 2017.

Days of Ash is available now on all streaming services, and all tracks also have their own lyrics videos.