U2 - Days Of Ash
★★★★
ISLAND
U2 are often at their best when they’re angry and Bono’s got something to shout about. As Adam Clayton stressed to MOJO in 2023, the band have been steadily building up a head of steam in the past couple of years – at least, in initial terms, sonically. “We are turning the amps on,” he said. “I certainly think the rock that we all grew up with as 16- and 17-year-olds, that rawness of those Patti Smith, Iggy Pop records… that kind of power is something we would love to connect back into.” The bassist then suggested a (jokey) working title for U2’s long-gestated 15th studio album (and first since 2017’s Songs Of Experience): Songs For Fighting.
In recent years, it’s been easy to forget that U2 initially sparked into life as a reactionary post-punk band who partly modelled themselves after The Clash. “I just want to write great tunes,” Bono told MOJO three years ago of their plans for future creative manoeuvres. “Because that’s where U2 started – with big choruses, clear ideas. And let’s go back there but do it with some petrol and some matches”.
Surprise-released six-track EP Days Of Ash – featuring songs described by the singer as being “of the moment we wish we weren’t in… but are” – is the first evidence of both this new sonic approach, and the singer’s reignited righteous indignation, provoked by the treatment of individuals the singer cites as being on the “frontline of freedom” – including 16-year-old Iranian protestor Sarina Esmailzadeh (beaten to death by the country’s security forces in September 2022) and Palestinian activist Awdah Hathaleen (killed in the West Bank by an extremist Israeli settler in July 2025). The release is accompanied by a one-off edition of U2 fanzine Propaganda and will be followed by a short documentary film directed by Ukrainian cinematographer Ilya Mikhaylus, released on February 24 - the 4th anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine
Opener American Obituary absolutely boots its way of the speakers with Never Mind The Bollocks aggro and the singer’s punchy exhortation, “You have the right to remain silent… or not”, before settling into a groove that is more Elevation-adjacent. Underlining its reactive freshness, its second verse is dedicated to Renée Good, shot dead by ICE agents in Minneapolis on January 7, before it culminates in a mass-voiced chant (“The power of the people is so much stronger than the people in power”) with echoes of both Patti Smith and John Lennon.
Elsewhere, there are distinct shades of post-punk (see Clayton’s nod towards Joy Division’s She’s Lost Control in the bassline for One Life At A Time) and something of a return to the band’s art rock ‘90s Achtung Baby/Zooropa era in The Edge’s fizzy, phasing guitar riff in Song Of The Future, replete with a multi-movement pop melody that mourns yet celebrates Esmailzadeh and what Bono calls “the exuberance of the schoolgirl uprising” in Iran.
The Tears Of Things, meanwhile, is a very different beast, being a slowly unfurling, five-minute-plus, Leonard Cohenesque tale that takes in David and Goliath, Michelangelo, Mussolini and the shadowy presence of Adolf Hitler. Via a beautifully twisty melody, it ultimately rails against religious fundamentalism, reaching an apex with the singer’s assertion, “When people go around talking to God it always ends in tears.”
Later, the presence of Ed Sheeran on closer Yours Eternally suggests the kind of star hookup collab that might in normal circumstances be cynically viewed as a commercially-minded move. But that’s without factoring in that Sheeran passed on to the U2 singer the phone number of Ukrainian soldier/singer Taras Topolia (frontman of the band Antytila), who performed with Bono and The Edge in a Kyiv metro station in 2022 and who also makes a vocal cameo here. Still, musically, it’s the weakest thing here, mainly due to the fact that it ends up sounding more Ed Sheeran than U2.
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READ MORE: Every U2 Album Ranked!
Overall, though, Days Of Ash proves that U2 are in rude creative health, which bodes well for a full album to follow later in 2026 (and the group’s return to live performance next year). Of the 25 work-in-progress tracks the band are currently honing-in the studio, Bono promises “more songs of celebration than lamentation… a more defiantly joyful feel to take on these anxious times”.
It also has to be noted that the returning Larry Mullen Jr. (missing in action from the band’s 2023/4 residency at the Sphere in Las Vegas due to physical issues requiring surgery) is playing out of his skin on these tracks. While the drummer has previously baulked at the potentially vibe-killing extent of the group’s socio-political messaging, here he’s all in. “We’ve never shied away from taking a position and sometimes that can get a bit messy,” he acknowledges. “There’s always some sort of blowback, but it’s a big side of who we are and why we still exist.”
If U2 have in the past couple of decades wrestled with doubts about their modern-day relevancy, here they’re clearly enlivened by their urgent return to songs of protest. Sounding sharper than they have done in years, they’re more up for the fight than perhaps ever before.
Days Of Ash is available to stream now. A one-off special edition of Propaganda, U2 - Days Of Ash: Six Postcards From The Present… Wish We Weren’t Here, is available digitally HERE and as a limited print run at select record stores across.
Tracklisting:
1. American Obituary
2. The Tears of Things
3. Song of The Future
4. Wildpeace - by Yehuda Amichai, read by Adeola, with music by U2 and Jacknife Lee.
5. One Life At A Time
6. Yours Eternally (ft. Ed Sheeran & Taras Topolia)
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