U2 honour Renée Good, plus show solidarity with Palestine, Ukraine and Iran on surprise new EP, ‘Days of Ash’
U2 have returned with the surprise release of their politically new EP, Days of Ash.
The unexpected release, their first major body of new work since Songs of Experience in 2017, finds the Irish rock band railing against the state of the world.
On the first track, Bono pays tribute to Renée Good, who was killed by ICE officers in January in Minnesota. On the song, he sings, “Renée Good born to die free, American mother of three, Seventh day January, A bullet for each child you see.”
Elsewhere on the EP, U2 turn their attention to Iran on ‘Song of the Future’ to commemorate the life of Sarina Esmailzadeh, who was tragically killed in 2022, aged 16, in Iran. She was one of the protestors for the Woman, Life, Freedom movement after Jina Mahsa Amini died from injuries following her arrest for not wearing a hijab.
Heartbreakingly, Esmailzadeh was also beaten by the regime and died from her injuries. On ‘Song of the Future’, U2 have aimed to “capture Sarina’s free spirit, the promise and hope of her short life”.
Meanwhile, Nigerian artist Adeola of Les Amazones d’Afrique delivers a reading of Israeli author and poet Yehuda Amichai’s ‘Wildpeace’ on the EP.
U2 also pay homage to the life of Awdah Hathaleen on ‘Yours Eternally’, a Palestinian father of three who worked on the Oscar-winning documentary No Other Land. He was killed in July 2025 by settler Yinon Levi in the West Bank.
Lastly, Taras Topolia, a Ukrainian musician-turned-soldier, contributes to the closing track ‘Yours Eternally’, and is also the muse of the song. He was brought to U2’s attention by Ed Sheeran, who also contributes to the track, following the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
To celebrate the surprise release, U2 have also published a new 54-page edition of their fanzine, Propaganda, which provides a fuller exploration of how Days of Ash was born.
Meanwhile, in a statement, Bono said of Days of Ash, “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.”
He optimistically added, “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.”
Larry Mullen Jr also noted of the new EP, “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.”
Mullen Jr then looked back at U2’s history, citing their prior work with Amnesty International and Greenpeace, explaining that “we’ve never shied away from taking a position”, before proudly stating, “It’s a big side of who we are and why we still exist.”
The Edge powerfully said of the band’s philosophy that shaped Days of Ash, “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.”
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