U2 hollers into the void

What impact will new EP "Days Of Ash" have?

When the world heard John Lennon’s mournful voice opening “A Day In The Life” — “I read the news today, oh, boy…” it meant one thing. As February 2026 closes, uttering the very same sentence nearly half a century later would mean something else altogether. Not something good, that’s for sure.

Listening to the lively, glistening six new tracks on U2’s surprise EP “Days Of Ash,” just released today (along with accompanying videos), that Lennon line comes immediately to mind. For it seems that’s precisely what Bono, The Edge, Larry and Adam have been up to, whether holed up in Dublin, living on the south of France or wherever these million/billionaires happen to be hanging out in these troubled days.

For those of us who still can muster a smile out of every sunrise, can nudge a little hope out of something each and every day whether we watch the news or not, hearing these tracks from our old friends, a four-piece band still miraculously intact from their days at Dublin’s Mount Temple school, is bit like getting a surprise Valentine from someone you didn’t even know still cared.

Here these guys are, hollering into what they clearly see as a musical void, shattering the deafening silence (except for our pal Bruce Springsteen) with heart, love, passion, enthusiasm and most of all, belief. Still.

The cover of U2’s surprising six-song EP - “Days Of Ash” released today.

The EP opens with the stinging “American Obituary,” one guess as to their topic, followed by “The Tears Of Things,” a softer, more acoustic ballad with Bono in a lower, more quiet register, the classic U2-sounding “Song Of The Future,” the urgent, almost hypnotic “One Life At A Time,” and a brief song/poem “Wildpeace.” The EP closes with the ringing, ear-friendly, charming collaboration “Yours Eternally (with Ed Sheeran and Taras Topolia)”. The new songs are brimming with topical, activist themes that align perfectly with U2’s lifetime body of work. They sound like compositions that seemed to awaken the conscience of all of them in a good way, like they were called to a higher, idealistic purpose with every chord change, you know, just like the old days.

Leading with their collectively idealistic chin — not a safe move in these bitterly divisive days — U2 and Bono, in particular, don’t really know any other way to work or how to respond to the world around them. Perhaps that’s something we’ve learned about the band when they’re at their most potent; U2 has their eyes on the whole globe.

And this seems to be exactly what they had in mind, listening to Bono and Larry Mullin.

“It’s been a thrill having the four of us back together in the studio over the last year,’ explains Bono. “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. These EP tracks couldn’t wait; these songs were impatient to be out in the world. They are songs of defiance and dismay...’

“Who needs to hear a new record from us?” asks Larry “ It just depends on whether we’re making music we feel deserves to be heard. I believe these new songs stand up to our best work. We talk a lot about when to release new tracks. You don’t always know… the way the world is now feels like the right moment.”

For a band with their long and glorious history, finding that right moment is a daunting challenge. Just like Larry said.

Well, you’d like to think the world. Or at least those restless souls once lifted by U2’s anthems, hearty folks who awaken each day scanning the horizon for a sign, praying for a brighter, more compassionate future for all of us. Like Bono once sang on the brilliant “Invisible,” — it was as if he anticipated a world this divisive: “There is no them. There’s only us. There’s only you and only me.”

I like to think U2 needed to do those songs and share them right this minute. They had to do it. Actually, Bono sort of shows his hand on one of these tracks.

In “One Life At A Time,” he sings, “You say you want to save the world tonight. Well, how you gonna get that right? How’s that gonna happen here?”

He doesn’t know either. But it’s a good sign that he’s thinking about it, isn’t it?

HERE ARE A FEW TRACKS FROM U2’S NEW EP, ‘DAYS OF ASH”

And here’s another track from the EP. Released today and already on YouTube!

And here’s their collaboration with Ed Sheehan “Yours Eternally”