U2 surprise drops 'Days of Ash' EP to 'confront these maddening times'
U2 surprise drops 'Days of Ash' EP to 'confront these maddening times'
Melissa Ruggieri, USA TODAY Wed, February 18, 2026 at 6:18 PM UTC
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U2 chose Ash Wednesday to release a quintet of songs that are among the most potent in their heady catalog.
The band surprise dropped “Days of Ash,” a collection of five songs and a poem, on Feb. 18, because as singer Bono says in the notes accompanying the release, “These EP tracks couldn’t wait; these songs were impatient to be out in the world.”
U2’s first new music since “Atomic City” in 2023, which dovetailed with their pioneering residency at the Las Vegas Sphere, is couched as a response to current events. Many of the songs refer to specific people, including Renée Good, the mother killed by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in January in Minneapolis after protesting their presence.
Bono asserts that these weighty songs are not indicative of what U2 is working on for an album expected in late 2026. “Songs of celebration will follow,” he says in the notes. “For all the awfulness we see normalized daily on our small screens, there’s nothing normal about these mad and maddening times and we need to stand up to them before we can go back to having faith in the future. And each other.”
U2 (clockwise) – Adam Clayton, The Edge, Larry Mullen Jr. and Bono – released a lyrically striking new EP, "Days of Ash," on Feb. 18, 2026.
The EP is accompanied by individual lyric videos, as well as the return of “Propaganda,” a digital zine that will have a limited-edition print run. The fan magazine was born 40 years ago as a nod to the punk-era “zine culture” that used to be delivered by mail to U2 fans. The 52-page publication is called “U2 − Days of Ash: Six Postcards from the Present … Wish We Weren’t Here,” and includes song lyrics, notes from the band members and an interview with Taras Topolia, a musician and soldier featured on one of the new tracks.
As drummer Larry Mullen Jr. notes, getting political has always been in U2’s DNA.
“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,” he says in the press notes. “There’s always some sort of blowback, but it’s a big side of who we are and why we still exist.”
Here’s a look at the five songs – “American Obituary,” “The Tears of Things,” “Song of the Future,” “One Life at a Time,” “Yours Eternally” (featuring Ed Sheeran and Topolia) – and the poem “Wildpeace,” by Israeli author and poet Yehuda Amichai.
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"American Obituary," on U2's new EP, "Days of Ash," pays tribute to Renee Good, the Minneapolis mother killed by ICE agents in January.‘American Obituary’
Over jagged, gritty guitars from The Edge, Bono digs into lyrics including, “The worst can’t kill what’s best in us … America will rise.”
Framed as a requiem for Renée Good, the song slashes through a message of hope, with Bono finding his upper range and leading the band in a chant as the song draws to a close: "The power of the people is so much stronger than the people in power.”
‘The Tears of Things’
The evocative song, titled after a book by Franciscan friar Richard Rohr about how people can live compassionately in times of violence or despair, starts softly over acoustic guitar and a shuffling groove.
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Religious overlays run parallel to a lyrical conversation between Michelangelo’s David and his creator, with the lyric video ending with a note from the band about the intent of the song: “Our common prayer for a two-state solution where Israelis and Palestinians can live side by side in just and peaceful coexistence.”
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‘Song of the Future’
A purposefully disjointed song packed with Edge’s guitar squalls is counterbalanced by a signature soaring U2 chorus as the band sings of 16-year-old Sarina Esmailzadeh, an Iranian schoolgirl who took to the streets as part of the Woman, Life, Freedom movement in 2022.
Sarina was beaten by Iranian security forces and died from her injuries, with the regime claiming she killed herself.
‘Wildpeace’
The poem by Yehuda Amichai is read by Nigerian artist Adeola of world music group Les Amazones d'Afrique over 90 seconds of electronic music backdrop composed by U2 and producer Jacknife Lee.
Among the intonation: “A little rest for the wounds – who speaks of healing? And the howl of the orphans is passed from one generation to the next as in a relay race: the baton never falls.”
U2's "Days of Ash" EP, released Feb. 18, 2026, was designed to drop on Ash Wednesday.‘One Life at a Time’
Written for Awdah Hathaleen, a Palestinian father, nonviolent activist and English teacher, killed in his village in the West Bank by Israeli settler Yinon Levi in July 2025, the song is as weighty musically as it is lyrically.
“You say you wanna save the world tonight,” Bono sings over a deep bass backbone from Adam Clayton. Melancholy is baked into the groove as Bono continues, “What you buy is what you’re being sold.”
Hathaleen was also a consultant on the Oscar-winning documentary “No Other Land.”
‘Yours Eternally’
Born out of Bono and The Edge busking in a metro station in Kyiv in 2022 at the invitation of Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the gently pulsing song is stacked with U2 hallmarks.
Layered harmonies – with an assist from Ed Sheeran – and chiming guitars tell a story inspired by Taras Topolia and is written in the form of a letter from a solider on active duty. A short documentary to accompany the song will be released Feb. 24, the fourth anniversary of Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
“If you have the chance to laugh, laugh at me,” Bono sings. “If you have a chance to reach, reach for me.”
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: U2's potent new 'Days of Ash' EP spotlights 'maddening times'
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