![\"U2](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/88d0d16b-ee40-4357-a825-dfc3fef2e907.jpg\")
<\/p>\nFrontman Bono says songs of \u2018lamentation\u2019 could not wait but promises further material this year\n<\/p>\n
In a surprise move that delighted fans globally, the chart-topping band unveiled a standalone, six-track EP entitled \u2018U2 \u2013 Days of Ash\u2019.<\/p>\n
The material includes collaborations with British singer Ed Sheeran and a Ukrainian musician-turned-soldier.<\/p>\n
It sees the return of drummer Larry Mullen, having taken a lengthy break from the band. Hopes are now high of a new world tour to accompany the material.<\/p>\n
Harking back to their campaigning days, the new songs chronicle recent injustices, from recent global conflicts to recent shootings in America.<\/p>\n
The EP is described as \u201can immediate response to current events and inspired by many of the extraordinary and courageous people fighting on the frontlines of freedom\u201d.<\/p>\n
One song \u2018American Obituary\u2019 is about the shooting dead of Minneapolis mother Ren\u00e9e Nicole Good by ICE agents on January 7. The song said she was \u201cshot at almost point-black range while exercising her right to peacefully protest, a right that is protected under the First Amendment of the US constitution\u201d.<\/p>\n
Another song \u2018Yours Eternally\u2019 featuring Ed Sheeran and Taras Topolia comes ahead of the fourth anniversary of the Russian invasion of Ukraine on February 24.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
U2 have released their first material since 2017<\/p>\n
News in 90 Seconds, Wednesday, February 18<\/p>\n
Tribute is also paid to Palestinian activist and English teacher Awdah Hathaleen. A consultant on the Oscar-winning film \u2018No Other Land\u2019, he was murdered in his West Bank village in July 2025 by an Israeli settler.<\/p>\n
Frontman Bono said that while a full studio album will follow later in the year, these EP tracks, five songs and a poem, \u201ccouldn\u2019t wait\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese songs were impatient to be out in the world. They are songs of defiance and dismay, of lamentation. Songs of celebration will follow,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Despite all the \u201cawfulness\u201d we see normalised on a daily basis, there is nothing normal about these \u201cmad and maddening times\u201d, Bono said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe need to stand up to them before we can go back to having faith in the future. And in each other.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mullen said he believes \u201cthese new songs stand up to our best work.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe talk a lot about when to release new tracks. You don\u2019t always know. The way the world is now feels like the right moment,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cGoing back to our earliest days, working with Amnesty or Greenpeace, we\u2019ve never shied away from taking a position and sometimes that can get a bit messy, there\u2019s always some sort of blowback. But it\u2019s a big side of who we are and why we still exist.\u201d<\/p>\n
Another track \u2018Song of the Future\u2019 is a tribute to Sarina Esmailzadeh (16). The Iranian schoolgirl was killed by security forces while taking part in the 2022 \u2018Woman, Life, Freedom\u2019 protests.<\/p>\n
Today also heralds the release of online magazine \u2018Propaganda\u2019, entitled \u2018U2 \u2013 Days of Ash: Six Postcards from the Present\u2026 Wish We Weren\u2019t Here\u2019.<\/p>\n
It comes 40 years after the first print edition of the U2 fan mag and has exclusive interviews with the band.<\/p>\n
The Dublin foursome have clocked up 22 Grammies and sold more than 170 million albums worldwide.<\/p>\n
The digital release of the EP takes place today, while a short documentary to accompany the song \u2018Yours Eternally\u2019 is scheduled for February 24, which is the fourth anniversary of Russia\u2019s invasion of Ukraine.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Frontman Bono says songs of \u2018lamentation\u2019 could not wait but promises further material this year In a surprise…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":304780,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[93,61,60,278],"class_list":{"0":"post-304779","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-music","8":"tag-entertainment","9":"tag-ie","10":"tag-ireland","11":"tag-music"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/304779","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=304779"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/304779\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/304780"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=304779"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=304779"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=304779"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}