Niall Stokes on Days of Ash: "U2 have found a collective unity and sense of purpose here"

Hot Press editor Niall Stokes has given his initial reaction to the release of U2’s politically charged new EP, Days of Ash.

“There's always a sense of trepidation when you hear a new record that’s been rush-released like this,” he told Gavin Jennings on RTÉ’s flagship show Morning Ireland. "It’s the first original offering from U2 since Songs Of Experience in 2017 – that’s a long time ago.”

The feeling of apprehension was heightened by the difficulties that have plagued drummer Larry Mullen in recent years.

"They’ve been through, in the meantime, the experience of going to Las Vegas and playing The Sphere without Larry,” Stokes added. “There was a sense that people didn’t know if Larry was going to make it back within the U2 camp, because he was suffering from real issues with his back and with his ability to play.

"So it's wonderful to see the four of them back together again – and, of course, the great Anton Corbijn photo that accompanies the EP. The four hands together, the band back to their original line-up – and really rocking with this new record.”

And does the new EP, with its strong political emphasis, work?

"When Bruce Springsteen released ‘Streets of Minneapolis’, there was a real surge of emotion, at a moment in that song, about the fact that this was a major artist dealing with one of the great travesties of this time, which is the way in which Donald Trump has enabled fascism to rise in the US – and that feeling is very strong too in 'American Obituary', which is a great song."

The lead track on the Days of Ash EP, 'American Obituary' is a powerful tribute to Renee Good, a woman who Bono describes as being "committed to non-violent civil disobedience", and who was murdered by ICE agents on the streets of Minneapolis.

"There’s a line in it that says, 'The power of the people is so much stronger than the people in power’,” Niall Stokes told Gavin Jennings. "There’s a sense of optimism in that, which reminds me of Patti Smith and her great song ‘People Have the Power’, from 1988.”

Whether that sense of optimism will prevail or not remains to be seen, Stokes says now. But what’s important is that the band's resistance to escalating injustices across the world – reminiscent of U2 in the years between War and The Joshua Tree, and recalling songs like ’Sunday Bloody Sunday’ and ‘Bullet the Blue Sky’ – is back.

"There’s a very strong sense,” Stokes told Morning Ireland, "of U2 going back to their roots – their political roots – and their involvement in Greenpeace and Amnesty International back in the ‘80s, and re-engaging with the world in that very strong, direct political sense."

Gavin Jennings made the point that U2 have been criticised for not being political enough in recent years.

"I think there’s a very important thing to say about this,” Stokes observed. “It’s absolutely wrong for people to expect any artist to write the song that they think they should write. Songs comes from inside and they’re about obsession – and you can hear that, and feel that, in these songs.

“Certainly, U2 were very strong at every stage in their reaction to what has happened in Ukraine, and to the invasion by Putin. They went and busked on the streets (of Kyiv) with musician-turned-soldier, Taras Topolia – who is at the centre of ‘Yours, Eternally’, which is imagined as a letter written from a soldier on the front line. So that’s very strong.”

‘Yours Eternally’ features Ed Sheeran, as well as Taras Topolia himself. 'Don’t sleep,' the chorus runs, 'Don’t even think about it/ No need/ Maybe just a little bit/ Still dream/ About waking up free/ As we can be.'

"It’s the 'poppiest' song on the EP, and I think it's going to get plenty of radio play,” Stokes told Morning Ireland.

Again, there is a feeling of optimism implied, with Bono speculating hopefully that 'In the chaos of the earth/ We’ll find beauty.'

‘One Life at a Time’ is written for Awdah Hathaleen, a teacher who lived in the West Bank, who was involved in making the acclaimed Academy Award-winning documentary No Other Land – on which Palestinians and Israelis worked together. Awdah Hathaleen was shot and killed by the Israeli ’settler’ – a euphemism for land thief – Yinon Levi. So far, no one has been brought to justice for the crime. 93.6% of cases of ‘settler' terror on Palestinians end without any prosecution.

"Bono is in brilliant form with his aphorisms, and lines that make you think,” Stokes said, referencing a question asked on 'One Life at a Time’, 'If there’s no law, is there no crime?'

“There’s another one that I love in that song,” he adds now. “It runs ‘Look around/ What you see depends on where you stand/ How you fall depends on where you land.’ Bono has always been a phrase-maker and that’s one of the striking features of this release."

’Song of the Future’ is about 16 year-old Sarina Eshmail Zadeh, who was a victim of the morality police in Iran, when she joined the Women, Life, Freedom protests.

"The chorus is lovely,” Stokes adds, "finding the musicality in the name Sarina. But there is another couplet that expresses something which might seem obvious, in a brilliantly original way, when Bono declares 'The future as everyone knows/ Is where you’re going to be spending the rest of your life'. He has a fantastic knack for peppering U2’s songs with those sidelong pearls of wisdom.

“There’s another one in ’The Tears of Things’, when he observes ‘When people go ‘round talking to God/ It always ends in tears’. I have been revisiting an interview I did with Bono back at the end of 2001, for our upcoming book History In The Making: The Book of Hot Press Interviews. The conversation took place at the end of the year in which Bono’s father Bob died, U2 performed at Slane Castle twice – and after the epoch-defining events of 9/11, which happened shortly after the second Slane concert.

“The discussion on the three religions of Abraham, and what Bono had to say about them, was really fascinating. And it still is, because that is all powerfully relevant now, at a time when terrible atrocities are being committed in the name of all three religions – by the Israel government and army in Gaza; by the Iranian government crushing protests by murdering their own citizens; and with the white Christian supremacist movement creating a whole new climate of racism, the erosion of civil rights and violent oppression that’s led to people being murdered on the streets in the United States by ICE.

“An awareness of the depth and scale of the challenges that face us right now permeates the Days of Ash EP. So it is a record that – like Bruce Springsteen’s ’Streets of Minneapolis’ – was made for immediate, quick-fire release. There are rough edges musically – but that’s good. With Edge’s signature guitar sound, Larry finding the groove on drums, Adam’s supple bass playing and Bono out front weaving a narrative spell, there is a really refreshing feeling that U2 have found a collective unity and sense of purpose here."

It takes time before you know for sure use how much you love any record, Stokes reflects now. But his conclusion on Morning Ireland was upbeat.

"There’s a lot of brilliant stuff on this record,” he said. “It is U2 at their rocking best."