{"id":49300,"date":"2026-02-20T11:17:52","date_gmt":"2026-02-20T16:17:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/?p=49300"},"modified":"2026-02-20T11:17:52","modified_gmt":"2026-02-20T16:17:52","slug":"u2-surprise-drops-days-of-ash-ep-on-ash-wednesday-led-by-american-obituary-tribute-track","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2026\/02\/u2-surprise-drops-days-of-ash-ep-on-ash-wednesday-led-by-american-obituary-tribute-track.html","title":{"rendered":"U2 Surprise-Drops \u2018Days of Ash\u2019 EP on Ash Wednesday, Led by \u2018American Obituary\u2019 Tribute Track"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
Featureflash Photo Agency \/ Shutterstock.com<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Dublin-based band, U2, surprised and dropped the “Days of Ash” EP on Ash Wednesday.<\/p>\n

As the global church celebrated the first day of Lent on February 18, 2026, the four-person band released six new songs, including the tribute song “American Obituary.”<\/p>\n

The band’s first set of new songs since 2017 is what band members call<\/a> “reactions to present-day anxieties \u2026 all likely to offend or annoy some parties, but that’s kind of our job!”<\/p>\n

The release is particularly poignant, given its release on a significant holiday. To millions of Christians, Ash Wednesday is a day marked with<\/a> a “public act of confession and contrition.” Often marked by an upcoming, six-week period of “fasting and preparation for the Great Three Days that culminate in Easter,” the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) notes that the “Lenten journey from the ashes of death to resurrected life begins on the first day of Lent,” further signifying a time to “turn around, to change directions, to repent.”<\/p>\n

Just as the themes of lament, repentance, and moral reckoning matter to many Christians, not only in the United States but around the world, it comes as no surprise that artists sometimes use music to respond to moments of national or global pain.<\/p>\n

It is no different for U2, when<\/a> “the new EP is a self-contained collection of five new songs and a poem\u2026” all of which offer “an immediate response to current events and [are] inspired by the many extraordinary and courageous people fighting on the frontlines of freedom.”<\/p>\n

It matters not that the band does not hail from the U.S., not when a large majority of their fan base resides in the Land of Opportunity. To the best-selling act, lament, repentance, and moral reckoning are still appropriate responses.<\/p>\n

In the song “American Obituary,”<\/a> a haunting refrain is sung: “The power of the people is so much stronger than the people in power.” In the eerie tune, U2 names Renee Macklin Good, the 37-year-old Minneapolis mother of three who ICE agents in Minneapolis killed in January 2025. Similarly, in the song “The Tears of Things,”<\/a> lead singer Bono echoes the chorus of the following line: “The tears of things, the tears of things, I’d cry them if I could,” further pointing listeners to various stories in Scripture and to the God whom he hopes hears his prayers.<\/p>\n

According to Bono<\/a>, the band’s intention is clear: “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.” Band members note how<\/a> “four of the five tracks are about individuals \u2013 a mother, a father, a teenage girl whose lives were brutally cut short \u2013 and a soldier who’d rather be singing but is ready to die for the freedom of his country.”<\/p>\n

Even if co-founder and drummer Larry Mullen Jr. wonders if the world needs a new record from the band, he also surmises that<\/a> “it just depends on whether we’re making music we feel deserves to be heard.” Just as he believes the six songs stand up to previous albums, he recognizes that “you don’t always know \u2026 the way the world is now feels like the right moment.”<\/p>\n

As it turns out, U2 is not alone \u2013 and they are also not the first of other major artists to release songs, EPs, and albums that engage current events, justice, and moral questions.<\/p>\n

In response to the killings of Good and Alex Pretti by federal agents<\/a>, “Bruce Springsteen touched down in Minnesota \u2026 and performed his protest songs, ‘Streets of Minneapolis,’ hours after it had already topped music charts.<\/p>\n

Bad Bunny refrained from performing at the Grammys (due to contractual obligations at the Super Bowl), but when he took the stage to<\/a> “accept his Grammy for best m\u00fasica urbana album for ‘Deb\u00ed Tirar M\u00e1s Fotos,'” he said to the audience, “We’re not savage. We’re not animals. We’re not aliens. We are humans, and we are Americans.”<\/p>\n

Likewise, when Billie Eilish and her brother Finneas accepted the Grammy for song of the year, they addressed U.S. immigration policies in their speech<\/a>: “No one is illegal on stolen land. It’s just really hard to know what to say and what to do right now, and I just, I feel really hopeful in this room.”<\/p>\n

More than anything, artists across the spectrum of belief are leaning into faith and conscience as they explore, through art, the role music can play in spiritual reflection.<\/p>\n

To these creatives, however, faith and conscience collide with issues of justice more often than not \u2013 and are then expressed through lyrics, videos, and songs that prompt listeners to lean into invitations to change and to turn around, as Ash Wednesday also prompts.<\/p>\n

According to lead guitarist, The Edge<\/a>, “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.”<\/p>\n

U2 is leaning into Lent, as their good Lord taught them to do.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Dublin-based band, U2, surprised and dropped the “Days of Ash” EP on Ash Wednesday. As the global church celebrated the first day of Lent on February 18, 2026, the four-person band released six new songs, including the tribute song “American Obituary.” The band’s first set of new songs since 2017 is what band members…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":516,"featured_media":49303,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fbia_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-49300","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-television"],"yoast_head":"\nU2 Surprise-Drops \u2018Days of Ash\u2019 EP on Ash Wednesday, Led by \u2018American Obituary\u2019 Tribute Track<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"U2 drops surprise \u201cDays of Ash\u201d EP on Ash Wednesday, blending lament, justice, and faith themes as Lent begins worldwide.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, 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