REVIEW: U2 - Days of Ash EP

"oh baby I hear it's political"

23:32 // February 18th, 2026 // Island Records

What’s the catchiest first sentence: “U2 is doing politics again!” or “U2 has put out their first proper body of work in about a decade!”? I’m not quite sure, but both options are true. The surprise release Days of Ash EP is the band’s first output that isn’t a rerelease, rerecording, or one-off single since 2017, and it’s perhaps the most consistently political thing they’ve done since 1983. While I am well aware that it is practically impossible and potentially inappropriate to do so, I will separate this review into the music and the politics. And a secret third thing.

The Music

Ever since 2009’s No Line on the Horizon’s mildly experimental soundscape, U2 have sounded like an odd amalgamation of their post-punk roots and the commercial dad rock they were pumping out 25 years ago, but with an increasingly ancient-sounding Bono who refuses to let the production rob him of his spotlight. Days of Ash is no different: it’s fairly easy to identify which era and sound of the band each song is attempting to recapture, to varying degrees of success. Opening cut “American Obituary” wouldn’t have been out of place on How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb with its sparkly riff and bumpy verses, while “The Tears of Things” feels like a Rattle and Hum-esque attempt at expanding the band’s mid-eighties sound, but falls flat due to Bono’s inability to carry its stillborn hook. Above all, this EP simply sounds like late-career U2: it’s not a reinvention, it’s not a recap, it’s just the band writing the songs they are still able to write in their sixties. However, it’s all fairly… nice. There are no truly offensive moments here — even the millennial optimism-pop of “Yours Eternally” feels somewhat justified — and the band cruise their way through a couple of songs while still firmly sounding like themselves (for better or for worse).

The Politics

Okay, sure, U2 have almost always been fairly political. War bursts with energy due to the band’s proximity to its subject matter, and a number of Bono’s subsequent expeditions into more global topics felt, at the very least, earnest. However, much like their sound, U2’s politics have mostly been rehashed statements over the past decades — “there is no them / there is only us” comes to mind. Days of Ash features such moments and classic Bono-isms, fear not, but for every “I love you more than hate loves war” there is an explicit mention of an Iranian protester, a Palestinian activist, or an American murdered by ICE. None of the sentiments expressed are particularly poignant or surprising, but that’s not really the point: if there’s one purpose for U2 to serve in 2026, it’s to communicate some common fucking sense to the boomers across the world who will listen to their music. And, perhaps for the first time in decades, they are able to communicate something that matters to people who otherwise wouldn’t think beyond their front yard.

The Secret Third Thing

I am aware that you have made it through three paragraphs of good-faith U2 reviewing, so here’s your reward: a bad-faith interpretation of Days of Ash and some well-deserved eye-rolling at Bono. Bro writes an EP about the horrors inflicted by ICE, the Israeli, Russian, and Iranian governments, and then says that the world needs a “radical centre”? Lol, yeah, okay, man. Are you sure you’re not just trying to save some face after your billionaire-glazing (if otherwise thoroughly enjoyable) autobiography is aging worse and worse with each release of more Epstein files? Also, c’mon, you guys have supposedly been working on new music for ten years, but this project features references to events from last month? 👍

With that out of our system: this EP is fine. It can serve a purpose, and I really hope it does. It sounds okay. What more can we wish for from U2 in 2026?

6.0/10