Good Friday indeed for U2 fans as band release new record and hint at live dates
A recent image of U2, who've just released a new EP entitled Easter Lily. Picture: Anton Corbijn
U2 entered the studio earlier this year to work on a new album and, barely three months into 2026, they have just released the second of two EPs.
The EP, released on Good Friday (April 3) follows on from – issued in February on Ash Wednesday – and continues the musical resurrection of an Irish band who hadn’t put an album since 2017.
There’s more good news for U2 fans with Bono confirming that a new album is still very much on the agenda, with live dates to follow. "We are in the studio, still working towards a noisy, messy, 'unreasonably colourful’ album to play live… which is where U2 lives. We still look to vivid rock’n’roll as an act of resistance against all this awfulness on our small screens,” the 65-year-old wrote in a note to fans.
One of the factors in the group’s recent prolificacy is the return of drummer Larry Mullen following the surgeries on his neck and back that forced him to miss the run of concerts at the Sphere in Las Vegas in 2023-24.
The new EP contains six songs the band have worked on with the likes of Irish producer Jacknife Lee and another longterm collaborator Brian Eno. While was undeniably angry as it railed against conflicts taking place in various trouble-spots around the world, is more reflective in tone.
Befitting the time of year, it also further opens the door on the band’s spiritual leanings, with track titles including and
Opening tune features The Edge on lead vocals for a lament for the band’s close friend, American musician Hal Willner, lost to covid in 2020. The timing of the release is particularly poignant as both Willner’s anniversary and the day that would have been his 70th birthday occur in the coming week.
One of the stand-out tracks is the Eno collaboration which closes the EP with the veteran producer being given licence to provide a more meditative, electronic departure from the signature rock sound heard elsewhere on the record.
Eno, who first worked with the band on in 1984, also contributes notes to accompany the song lyrics on the latest edition of recently-revived U2 e-fanzine
“Watching the global creep of fascism is disheartening,” writes Eno. “I’d been reading about another abhorrent incidence of it – this time in Israel – when Bono sent me the completed version of this song. It had a powerful effect on me. I was angry and upset by the news I’d read, but moved by this song of gratitude which reminded me that focusing on what is going right is as essential as its opposite.”
The fanzine also contains a very personal piece from bass player Adam Clayton in which he details his own early resistance to being part of the Shalom church group the other members of the band were involved in, but how he eventually turned to religion as part of his recovery from addiction.
- is available as a digital download from Friday, April 3
