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Days Of Ash\u00a0(Island)<\/strong><\/p>\n Although there\u2019s a new U2 album due later this year, this new, six-song digital-only release is more than a teaser of what\u2019s to come. Days Of Ash<\/em>, a standalone EP, is the most politically themed set of songs this band has created in quite a while, and the lyric videos which accompany these songs online are as powerful as they are emotive. The band\u2019s long-running Propaganda magazine<\/a><\/em> is also rebooted for this release, in digital form, and well worth reading: hopefully both mag and music will be available in physical form soon.<\/p>\n First up is American Obituary<\/em>, an angry response to ICE\u2019s fatal shooting of peaceful protester Ren\u00e9e Nicole Macklin Good in Minnesota: here, The Edge\u2019s guitar is as brutal as The Clash in full flight with the chorus \u201cI love you more than hate loves war<\/em>\u201d making an effective mantra. The slower-paced, almost Leonard Cohen-esque The Tears Of Things<\/em> is one of the best songs this band has ever made \u2013 as urgent as it\u2019s heartwrenching, with its lyrical tack finding David questioning the use of violence to defeat Goliath.<\/p>\n Song Of The Future<\/em>, an upbeat ear worm with an unforgettable chorus, pays tribute to Iranian teenager Sarina Esmailzadeh, who lost her life during the Woman, Life, Freedom protests in Iran in 2022, and Wildpeace<\/em> is a poem by Yehuda Amichai<\/a>, read here by Nigerian artist Adeola Fayehun; its ambient backing was the co-creation of U2 and producer Jacknife Lee.<\/p>\n One Life At A Time<\/em> was written for Palestinian\u00a0Awdah Hathaleen, killed in the West Bank by an Israeli settler, and addresses the frustration of a conflict without an end in sight: it pulls similar emotional levers to early U2 classic Pride (In The Name Of Love)<\/em>. And finally, Yours Eternally<\/em>, on which Ukrainian musician Taras Topolia and Ed Sheeran contribute to an uplifting, defiant fist-raiser. Taken as a whole, Days Of Ash <\/em>proves U2 still have the ability to galvanise us, move us and<\/em> shake us with their songs in a time of unbearable suffering.\u00a0<\/p>\n words DAVID NOBAKHT<\/strong><\/p>\n \n