It is the band’s first collection of new material since their 2017 album ‘Songs of Experience’
U2 have release a surprise EP Days of Ash. It is the band’s first collection of new material since their 2017 album Songs of Experience. Stream all five new songs below.
The band’s new EP is accompanied by the return of Propaganda, a one-off digital zine, published forty years after the first edition of U2’s original fan magazine was issued in the spring of 1986. Propaganda was always about much more than the band, born out of the punk-era D.I.Y. zine culture that embraced attitude, ideas and dialogue. In the spirit of those early issues, this special publication of Propaganda titled “U2 – Days Of Ash: Six Postcards From The Present… Wish We Weren’t Here” explores the human stories that inspired the tracks on the Days of Ash EP.
U2’s Songs of Innocence (2014) and Songs of Experience (2017) stand as a deliberate, deeply personal two-part project that reflects both the band’s origins and its long journey through fame, politics, and personal transformation. Inspired in part by the poetry of William Blake—whose Songs of Innocence and of Experience explored the contrast between youthful idealism and mature perspective—U2 crafted these albums as companion pieces that mirror each other thematically, sonically, and emotionally. Together, they form one of the most introspective and conceptually unified chapters in the band’s four-decade career.
Released on September 9, 2014, Songs of Innocence was conceived as a reflection on the formative experiences of the band members growing up in Dublin during the 1970s. It is, in many ways, a memoir set to music—particularly through the eyes of Bono, whose lyrics revisit adolescence, family, religion, and the discovery of music itself. Tracks like “Iris (Hold Me Close)” pay tribute to Bono’s late mother, while “Cedarwood Road” and “Raised by Wolves” recount the violence and unrest of The Troubles in Ireland.
Sonically, the album blends modern production with echoes of U2’s early post-punk roots. Producers including Danger Mouse, Paul Epworth, and Ryan Tedder helped the band craft a polished but emotionally grounded sound. Songs like “The Miracle (of Joey Ramone)” celebrate punk rock’s liberating spirit, while “Every Breaking Wave” offers one of the band’s most vulnerable ballads, reflecting on love and fragility.
However, the album’s legacy was immediately overshadowed by its controversial release strategy. In partnership with Apple Inc., Songs of Innocence was automatically added to the iTunes libraries of over 500 million users worldwide at no cost. While intended as a groundbreaking distribution move, the tactic sparked widespread backlash from users who felt their personal libraries had been invaded. Despite the criticism, the album debuted at No. 1 in multiple countries and was later supported by the highly successful Innocence + Experience Tour (2015), which recontextualized the songs through innovative staging and storytelling.
If Songs of Innocence looked backward, Songs of Experience turns its gaze forward—and inward. Released on December 1, 2017, the album was shaped by a series of personal and global events, including Bono’s reported near-death health scare and a shifting political landscape marked by rising nationalism and uncertainty. The result is a more urgent, reflective, and at times darker record.
The album opens with “Love Is All We Have Left,” a quiet, atmospheric prelude that sets a tone of vulnerability. From there, tracks like “Lights of Home” and “Get Out of Your Own Way” grapple with mortality, self-doubt, and resilience. The latter includes a spoken-word interlude from Kendrick Lamar, bridging generational and stylistic gaps while reinforcing the album’s themes of guidance and inner struggle.
Politically charged songs such as “American Soul” and “Summer of Love” reflect U2’s long-standing engagement with global issues, particularly the refugee crisis and shifting American identity. Meanwhile, more intimate moments—like “You’re the Best Thing About Me” and “13 (There Is a Light)”—underscore Bono’s reflections on family, legacy, and the passage of time.
Musically, Songs of Experience leans more heavily into contemporary pop and electronic textures than its predecessor, again enlisting producers like Jacknife Lee, Ryan Tedder, and Steve Lillywhite. The album debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200, reaffirming U2’s enduring commercial power decades into their career.
Taken together, the two albums function as a dialogue between past and present—youth and maturity, certainty and doubt. Where Songs of Innocence is rooted in memory and identity formation, Songs of Experience is concerned with survival, legacy, and the consequences of those early experiences. Bono has described the latter as a series of letters to people close to him, written as if he might not have much time left—adding a layer of urgency and emotional weight to the project.
This duality is also reflected in the band’s touring cycle. The Innocence + Experience Tour (2015) and Experience + Innocence Tour (2018) were designed as companion live experiences, using cutting-edge visual technology and narrative structure to mirror the themes of the albums. The shows blended personal storytelling with political commentary, reinforcing U2’s reputation as one of the most ambitious live acts in rock history.
In the years since their release, Songs of Innocence and Songs of Experience have undergone significant critical reappraisal. While the former was initially defined by its controversial rollout, many critics and fans have come to recognize it as one of U2’s most personal and emotionally resonant works. Songs of Experience, meanwhile, has been praised for its lyrical depth and willingness to confront aging and mortality—topics rarely explored so candidly by legacy rock acts.
Together, the albums represent a late-career artistic statement that is both introspective and outward-looking. Rather than relying solely on their past successes, U2 used this two-part project to interrogate their own history, relevance, and humanity. In doing so, they created a body of work that stands apart in their catalog—not just as a pair of albums, but as a cohesive narrative about who they were, who they became, and what they still had to say.
For a band that has spent decades navigating the space between personal conviction and global influence, Songs of Innocence and Songs of Experience serve as a fitting reflection: a reminder that even the biggest rock stars are still shaped by where they came from—and still searching for meaning in where they’re going.