Days Of Ash: U2 issue surprise release of new EP, with Ed Sheeran among the guests 

Days Of Ash is U2's first body of new music since 2017, and addresses various topical issues such as conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East

U2 have just released a new EP entitled Days Of Ash. Picture: Anton Corbijn

U2 surprised the music world on Wednesday evening with the release of a six-track EP dealing with current events in such trouble-spots as Ukraine and the Middle East. U2 - Days Of Ash contains five new songs and a poem, and is the Irish band’s first body of original work since the Songs of Experience album in 2017.

In recent years, the Irish foursome have mainly focused on reworkings and reissues of older material, as well as playing a widely-praised 40-concert residency at the Sphere in Las Vegas.

Among the guests on the new EP is Ed Sheeran, who pops up alongside Ukrainian singer Taras Topolia on Yours Eternally, with an accompanying short documentary following on February 24, the fourth anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Singer Bono and guitarist The Edge got to know Topolia when they travelled to Kyiv in 2022 to busk in the city’s subway and to draw attention to the beleaguered nation’s plight.

While outspoken on the issue of Ukraine, public in criticism in Ireland and beyond at the band’s perceived lack of response to events in Gaza prompted the quartet to release individual statements in August 2025 in which Bono decried the violence on both sides of the conflict. U2 also address the Palestinian issue on this EP through One Life At A Time, written about Awdah Hathaleen, a father of three killed in his West Bank village by an Israeli settler in July 2025. Awdah was a consultant on the Oscar-winning documentary No Other Land.

The cover of Days Of Ash, by U2.

Other topical issues dealt with on Days Of Ash include the killing of Renée Good by ICE agents in Minnesota, and the death of 16-year-old Sarina Esmailzadeh at the hands of security forces in Iran. The EP also includes a reading of a Israeli writer Yehuda Amichai’s poem Wildpeace, read by Adeola of music group Les Amazones d'Afrique, and featuring a contribution from celebrated Irish producer Jacknife Lee. 

“It’s been a thrill having the four of us back together in the studio over the last year… the songs on Days of Ash are very different in mood and theme to the ones we’re going to put on our album later in the year,” said Bono.

“These EP tracks couldn't wait; these songs were impatient to be out in the world. They are songs of defiance and dismay, of lamentation. Songs of celebration will follow, we’re working on those now… because 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.”

 Drummer Larry Mullen Jr, who had to miss the Sphere concerts due to surgeries on his neck and back, said the new songs stood up with the band’s best work. “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, there’s always some sort of blowback, but it’s a big side of who we are and why we still exist,” said Mullen.

Among the other material being released around the EP is an issue of the Propaganda zine, first published by the band in 1986. A 52-page limited print publication and a digital version include an interview with Bono, notes from the other band members, and interviews with some of the Ukrainian contributors to the project.

The band say they will also make contributions to three organisations: Amnesty International, the Committee to Protect Journalists, and UNHCR.

There’s no word yet from the band on any live shows, but U2 have traditionally undertaken tours in the wake of album releases.