Feb 19, 2026
3 min read
Ash's new EP Days features songs about Rainy God, Iranian protesters and other political issues, and precedes new album 'Definitely Joyful' in 2026.
U2 released their first collection of new music since 2017, Days of Ash, a politically charged EP that focuses on a series of high-profile global deaths, including the killing of Rene Goode by ICE agents.
Good, a mother of three children who was killed on 7 January while protesting against ICE activity in Minneapolis, is the subject of the opening song, American Obituary.
"Renee Goode, born to die in vain / America's third mother / Seven days of January / A bullet for every kid you see," Bono sings in a hard rock song, leaving the Edge after speaking."Renee, 'Domestic Terrorist'? / What you can't kill can't die / America will stand up against the liars."
In a wide-ranging interview in a fanzine that accompanied the six-song release, a continuation of the band's propaganda fanfare that began sending fans in the 1980s, Bono referred to Good as "a woman engaged in nonviolent civil disobedience".
He said he was deeply troubled that Christie, the head of the United States Department of Homeland Security, had called him a domestic terrorist.Bono said: "It was an attempt to kill the meaning of the word, the meaning of truth."
In Song of the Future, the band focuses on the Women, Life and Freedom Movement in Iran, which campaigned for women's rights.According to Amnesty International's investigation, they named Sarina Ismailzadeh, who died in September 2022 at the age of 16 after being beaten by Iranian security forces.Iranian officials said she committed suicide.
Bono sings, "Sarina, Sarina, she's the future in my head."In an interview, he described Iran's ruling class as a "clerical class" whose subjective interpretation of the sacred text becomes a club to beat those who disagree with.
The song One Life at a Time is about Palestinian activist Awadah Hatlin, who was killed by Israeli settlers in the West Bank in July 2025.Hethalin starred in the Oscar-winning film No Other Place.Bono called the killing "disgusting" and said he hoped the song would be a "balm".
Tears of Things takes its name from Richard Rohr's book, which uses wisdom from the Jewish prophets to address today's violence and anger.The lyrics imagine a conversation between Michelangelo's David and his sculptor.The album also includes a recitation of a poem by Israeli poet Yehuda Amichai titled Wildpeace, read to music by Nigerian musician Adeola.From U2.
Bono said: "It is the moral force of Judaism that helped shape Western civilization" and celebrated Jews as "mathematicians, scientists, writers, not to mention songwriters".He added: "Like Islamophobia, anti-Semitism must be fought every time we witness it. The rape, murder and kidnapping of Israelis on October 7 is bad, but self-defense is not a defense against Netanyahu's widespread brutality."
He also acknowledged the lives lost and displaced during the conflict in Sudan, and criticized the Trump administration for cutting US foreign aid.
On the closing track, Yours Eternally, Ed Sheeran guests with Ukrainian musician Taras Topolia, who inspired the song to be a letter from a soldier on duty in the conflict with Russia.2022.
"Ask anybody in East Germany or Poland or Latvia if they think Putin will stay in Ukraine if he can get away with it?"said Bono.was applauded.
A short documentary called Yours Eternally, directed by Ukrainian filmmaker Ilya Mykhailos, featuring front-line Ukrainian soldiers, will be released on February 24 to commemorate the fourth anniversary of the Russian invasion.
U2 have given me a few new songs in recent years such as Atomic City and Your Song Saved My Life.In 2023, they released the album Songs of Surrender, which contained reissues of previous songs, and in 2024, they released unheard material from the sessions for the 2004 album How to Break the Atomic Bomb.But they haven't released an album or an EP of new material since 2017's Songs of Experience .
The accompanying fanzine, The Edge wrote: "We believe in a world where borders are not destroyed by force. Where culture, language and memory are not silenced by fear, where people's dignity is non-negotiable. This belief is not temporary.
Larry Mullen Jr.added in an interview: "Going back to our early days working with Amnesty or Greenpeace, we've never failed to take a stand and sometimes it can get a bit messy, there's always some sort of backlash, but it's a big part of who we are and why we still exist."
Drummer Mullen Jr was absent from U2's concert at the Las Vegas Sphere, as he recovers from neck surgery.He added: "To be honest, I wasn't sure if I was going to get back into the game, so it's a big thing to be back."He said he had changed his position on the equipment to allow him to play, as well as to change his "direction and purpose" towards music.
Elsewhere in the zine, bassist Adam Clayton shared his cultural choices (including the Geese and writer Deborah Levy) and proclaimed the importance of "tolerance, freedom, and the decision not to be too quick to judge."
Bono also outlined his vision of a "radical center" in politics.
“The death of truth is the birth of evil,” he said."I am confident that the right will stand up to counter this contradiction. I have many conservative friends who are as concerned about the right as I am about the democratic left. Of course the world needs a 'radical center' that comes from both cultures."
U2 also confirmed their long-rumored new album, saying it will be released later this year and will be completely separate from the EP material.
Bono said, "The songs on Ashes Days are very different in feel and tone to anything we've put out on our album. "These EP tracks couldn't wait;These songs were impatient to get out into the world.They were songs of protest and sorrow, of mourning...
He added: "The celebratory songs will start, we're working on that now," saying the new record will have a "carnival vibe... more of a happy feeling."
Despite the EP's political content, U2's songwriting and activism have been greater over the years, he admits that "we have to be stingy with amplifying [the political message]" ... I'll summarize the bad news.
