U2 have released Days Of Ash, a surprise EP marking their first collection of new songs since 2017’s ‘Songs Of Experience’.
Released on Ash Wednesday, the six track project doesn’t tiptoe around global politics, instead, it stares directly at ICE, Vladimir Putin, Benjamin Netanyahu and the state of modern democracy.
The Irish giants frame the EP as a response to “current events”, centring on individuals whose lives were cut short by violence and conflict (per Louder Sound).
Stories From The Frontline
In a statement, the band explained:
“On this Ash Wednesday, Days Of Ash is released as a self-contained collection of five new songs and a selected poem – American Obituary, The Tears Of Things, Song Of The Future, Wildpeace, One Life At A Time and Yours Eternally (ft. Ed Sheeran & Taras Topolia).”
“This new EP is a response to current events, inspired by the many extraordinary and courageous people fighting on the frontlines of freedom. Four of the five tracks are about individuals – a mother, a father, a teenage girl whose lives were brutally cut short – and a soldier who’d rather be singing but is ready to die for the freedom of his country.”
Among those referenced are Renee Good, killed while protesting ICE activity in Minneapolis, Iranian protester Sarina Esmailzadeh, and Palestinian activist Awdah Hathaleen. ‘Yours Eternally’ is written as a letter from a Ukrainian soldier.
Bono Doesn’t Hold Back
In U2’s Propaganda fanzine, Bono questions Russian expansionism:
“Ask anyone in east Germany or Poland or Latvia if they think Putin will stop at Ukraine if he can get away with it? He’d find an excuse to invade Ireland if it suited his purposes.”
Addressing the Israel-Gaza war, he adds:
“It’s the moral force of Judaism that helped shape Western civilisation. As with Islamophobia, antisemitism must be countered every time we witness it. The rape, murder and abduction of Israelis on 7 October was evil, but self-defence is no defence for the sweeping brutality of Netanyahu’s response.”
“The death of truth is the birth of evil,” Bono continues. “I have confidence the righteous will rise up against this aberration.”
Guitarist The Edge sums it up bluntly: “We believe in a world where borders are not erased by force.”
Whether you agree with them or not, U2 are clearly done staying quiet.
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