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Feb 19, 2026 By Mark Redfern Photography by Anton Corbijn

U2 have released a brand new EP, Days of Ash. The six-song release includes “American Obituary,” a new song inspired by the death last month of Renée Nicole Macklin Good at the hands of ICE agents in Minneapolis. One song features Ed Sheeran and Ukrainian musician Taras Topolia. Another features a poem by Yehuda Amichai, as read by Adeola. Stream the full EP below, and also watch lyric videos for each song.

Each of the band members issued a separate statement about the EP.

Bono: “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. 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. And each other. ‘If you have a chance to hope it’s a duty…’ is a line we borrowed from Lea Ypi. A laugh would be nice too. Thank you.”

Larry Mullen Jr.: “Who needs to hear a new record from us? It just depends on whether we’re making music we feel deserves to be heard. I believe these new songs stand up to our best work. We talk a lot about when to release new tracks. You don’t always know… the way the world is now feels like the right moment. 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.”

Adam Clayton: “I’m excited about these new songs, it feels like they’re arriving at the right time.”

The Edge: “We believe in a world where borders are not erased by force. Where culture, language, and memory are not silenced by fear. Where the dignity of a people is not negotiable. This belief isn’t temporary. It isn’t political fashion. It’s the ground we stand on. And we stand there together.”

The press release also includes liner notes on each song.

“American Obituary” is about Renée Nicole Macklin Good, who “was shot at almost point-blank range while exercising her right to peacefully protest, a right that is protected under the First Amendment of the United States Constitution. This unarmed mother was then described as a ‘domestic terrorist’ by a government who will not withdraw the description even though they know it’s not true. Or mount a proper enquiry into what happened for the sake of everyone involved.”

“The Tears of Things” takes its title from a book by Franciscan friar Richard Rohr, a book that “examines, through the writings of the Jewish prophets, how one can live compassionately in a time of violence and despair.” The song is about a conversation between Michelangelo’s David and his creator, “where the young man with the sling and five smooth stones refuses the idea that he has to become Goliath to defeat him… he’s also revealed as having heart shaped pupils half a millennia before the heart shaped emoji, which puzzles visitors at the Galleria dell’Accademia in Florence, Italy, to this day.”

“Song of the Future” “honors the life of 16-year-old Sarina Esmailzadeh,” who was “one of thousands of Iranian schoolgirls who took to the streets as part of the Woman, Life, Freedom movement in 2022. These protests were sparked by the death of Jina Mahsa Amini, a young Kurdish-Iranian woman who died in Tehran on September 16th that year from injuries sustained following her arrest by the so-called ‘morality police’ for not wearing a hijab in accordance with government standards. Seven days later, Sarina was beaten by the Iranian security forces and died from her injuries, the regime claiming she killed herself. The song aims to capture Sarina’s free spirit, the promise and hope of her short life.”

“One Life At a Time” was written for Awdah Hathaleen, who was “a Palestinian father of three. A nonviolent activist and English teacher, Awdah was killed in his village in the West Bank by Israeli settler Yinon Levi on July 28th, 2025. Awdah was a consultant on the Oscar-winning documentary No Other Land, made by Palestinians and Israelis. At his funeral, one of the directors, Basel Adra, spoke of the slaughter of his friend and the experience of Palestinians being erased ‘one life at a time.’ U2 took that line and turned it around to suggest that a peaceful resolution will be wrought ‘one life at a time.’”

EP closer “Yours Eternally” features vocals by “Ukrainian musician-turned-soldier Taras Topolia,” plus British pop singer/songwriter Ed Sheeran. As the press release explains: “In the spring of 2022, following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Bono and The Edge traveled to Kyiv to busk in a metro station at the invitation of President Zelensky. A couple of days prior to that, Ed connected Taras Topolia, and by extension his band Antytila, with Bono. Bono, Taras and The Edge met for the first time on that subway platform. They’ve been friends ever since. Taras is the inspiration for ‘Yours Eternally,’ a song written in the form of a letter from a soldier on active duty with a bold, mischievous spirit to match Ukraine’s.”

There will be a four-and-a-half-minute documentary connected to “Yours Eternally,” directed by Ukrainian cinematographer and filmmaker Ilya Mikhaylus. It will be released on Tuesday, February 24, which is the fourth anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. “Shot in December 2025 while Mikhaylus and his crew were embedded alongside the 40,000-strong Khartiya Corps, the film captures the extraordinary daily lives of Alina and her fellow soldiers fighting on the frontlines of the war,” the press release explains.

U2 have also brought back their Propaganda zine, first put out in 1986, as a one-off digital zine, with a limited-edition print run. Check out the digital version here.

Days of Ash EP Tracklist:

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 (feat. Ed Sheeran & Taras Topolia)

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