U2 is obviously one of the more important rock bands since 1980, and while not everyone loves their music, their importance cannot be ignored. Still, the band has had some difficulties recently and might have seemed close to its end.
Not so fast. The group performed the Las Vegas residency at the sphere without longtime drummer Larry Mullen, Jr. He missed the shows due to neck and back surgeries, but his recovery has been good enough to allow him to play again and join Bobo, the Edge, and Adam Clayton in the studio.
The band has reportedly been working on a new album over the last year, but what fans didn't expect was an EP to be released. But an EP was. U2 produced the six-song Days of Ash on Thursday, and it is full of emotional tunes, both bombastic and ballads, featuring thoughts on the current global political climate.
U2 surprise fans with six-song EP Days of Ash
"American Obituary" has an Achtung Baby feel with its shimmery guitars and dance groove. The lyrics are classic Bono, though. He namedrops Renee Good, too. Good was recently killed in Minneapolis by ICE agents, and Bono references the situation by singing, "Renee Good, born to die free/ American mother of three/ Seventh day, January/ A bullet for each child, you see."
The sing-songy chorus near the end feels a bit overwrought, but the intent is genuine. So is the full-out rock.
The second track is "The Tears of Things," has a bit of a Roger Waters-era Pink Floyd feel with its balladry mixed with its building pay-off. Bono's lyrical religious imagery reminds some listeners of how the band began their career, too. Not as Christian rockers, but rockers who were also Christian.
"Song of the Future" speaks about Sarina Esmailzadeh, the 16-year-old Iranian girl who brutally died in a protest in 2022. While the song is clearly about a heavy subject, the music gives the tune a hopeful feel.
"Wildpeace" is built around a poetry ready by Nigerian artist Adeola, who reads a poem by Yehuda Amichai, the late Israeli writer. The tune lasts just one minute and 30 seconds, but might have made for an intro to a longer, and still important, song.
The penultimate song is "One Life at a Time," a tune about Awdah Hathaleen, a Palestinian activist who was killed by an Israeli West Bank settler. The structure of the song is a bit more toned down, and some might find U2 having back-to-back tracks on the EP that appear pro-Israeli and then pro-Palestinian confusing.
The truth is that U2 isn't making a political stance either way. The likely point is to eschew violence in all forms.
The final song is "Yours Eternally," which also features Ed Sheeran and Taras Topolia. It's a happy-sounding pop song that makes one feel as if life is going to be OK. That was the entire point of releasing the EP, most likely.