U2 just pulled a Bruce Springsteen.
The band has released its first collection of new songs in nearly a decade, the six-song EP Days of Ash. The songs include a tribute to Renée Good called “American Obituary,” and are a reflection of the somber political times in the nation, as Bono hits ICE, Putin, Netanyahu, and more.
“Renée Good born to die free / American mother of three / Seventh day / January / A bullet for each child, you see,” Bono sings of Good, the 33-year-old mother and American citizen gunned down by ICE last month.
The scathing rebuke continues, “To desecrate domestic bliss / Three bullets blast, three babies kissed / Renee the domestic terrorist? / What you can’t kill can’t die / America will rise / Against the people of the lie.”
“American Obituary” comes a few weeks after Springsteen’s “Streets of Minneapolis,” a song that also memorializes the “two dead left to die on snow-filled streets / Alex Pretti and Renée Good,” while blasting Donald Trump and his administration. Springsteen also released an anti-Trump EP “Land of Hope and Dreams,” which includes two of his onstage speeches calling the administration “corrupt, incompetent, and treasonous.”
At the height of Trump’s beef with Springsteen last spring, he declared that the music icon “ought to KEEP HIS MOUTH SHUT.” Bono defended Springsteen at the time, telling Jimmy Kimmel, “There’s only one boss in America.”
U2 digs into the ICE killings just as brazenly as “the Boss,” as Bono sings, “Could you stop a bullet in midair?” and criticizes apathy with the lyrics, “Could you stop a heart from breaking / By having it not care?” and “You have the right to remain silent / or not…”
Other songs on the EP, none of which will be featured on the band’s long-awaited forthcoming album, include “Yours Eternally,” “Songs of the Future,” “The Tears of Things,” “One Life at a Time,” and “Wildpeace.” The songs take on various headlines beyond the U.S. and Minneapolis, from Ukraine to Gaza, and Iran to Israel.
Fellow Grammy winner Ed Sheeran features on and co-writes “Yours Eternally”—the EP’s closing track, written as a letter from a Ukrainian soldier on the front lines of the conflict with Russia. The song also features Taras Topolia of the pop-rock band Antytila, who made a direct appeal to the singer in 2022.
Bono told The Guardian on Wednesday that the band’s next album will have “a carnival vibe … a more defiantly joyful feel.”
U2 released its last full-length album, “Songs of Experience,” in 2017.
