U2 release 'Days of Ash' EP featuring Ed Sheeran
The tracks on U2's new EP, which have been described as "songs of defiance and dismay", will not feature on the band's upcoming album.
U2 is responding to current world events with a politically charged EP titled 'Days of Ash'.
The EP was released on Wednesday, February 18. "On this Ash Wednesday, 'Days Of Ash' is released as a self-contained collection of five new songs and a selected poem - American Obituary, The Tears Of Things, Song Of The Future, Wildpeace, One Life At A Time and Yours Eternally," the band wrote on Instagram.
Ed Sheeran and Taras Topolia feature on 'Yours Eternally'.
"This new EP is a response to current events, inspired by the many extraordinary and courageous people fighting on the frontlines of freedom. Four of the five tracks are about individuals – a mother, a father, a teenage girl whose lives were brutally cut short - and a soldier who’d rather be singing but is ready to die for the freedom of his country."
Some of the songs address major world events, including the death of Minneapolis resident Renée Nicole Macklin Good. The 37-year-old mother was shot dead by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials in January.
Three weeks later, ICU nurse Alex Pretti was also fatally wounded by an ICE officer.
“Renee Good, born to die free / American mother of three / seventh day January / a bullet for each child, as you can see,” U2 frontman Bono sings in 'American Obituary'.
U2's 'Days of Ash' was released alongside a one-off digital magazine, 'Propaganda', which features an interview with Bono.
He reveals the inspiration behind the songs and includes the full lyrics of each track. Bono also shares how his collaboration with Sheeran came about.
The band has gotten to know the singer and his wife, Cherry, over the last few years.
"Ed is a whirling dervish of a talent... I see a lot of my younger self in Ed, although he takes himself a little less seriously than I took myself at his age. ... When Ed was over in Dublin to work on songs for a whole other project, I noticed he and I have some other things in common..."
"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," Bono said in a statement.
"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."
The band's upcoming album will focus on "songs of celebration".
"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."
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Image credit: Supplied/ Anton Corbijn