Irish rock legends U2 have released their second surprise EP of 2026, with the six-track Easter Lily coming just over 40 days after Days of Ash. After a quiet period for the band, as drummer Larry Mullen Jr recovered from neck surgery, the two EPs follow confirmation last year that a new studio album is being recorded. Described by singer Bono as a "noisy, messy, unreasonably colourful" record, it is expected later this year. He has described Easter Lily as coming from "a more intimate place" with songs "about friendship, faith, endurance and renewal".

This year's EPs are U2's first collections of newly written material since 2017. The EP comes along with a digital e-zine edition of U2's fanzine Propaganda. In the e-zine the band's guitarist The Edge, said if Days of Ash was about "a world in trauma", then Easter Lily is about where the band goes for "strength to walk through this world".

Speaking to BBC News NI, Hot Press deputy editor Stuart Clark said: "I really like it, I think with the other six songs [released in February] you feel like the fire is in the belly. "I suppose when they went and did the Joshua Tree tour you thought are they going to retreat into the back catalogue a wee bit and maybe for a few years they did. "But throughout their career U2 have always been about the new album, the next bunch of songs." He said the songs were obviously deeply personal and said there has always been a religious element to their work. "What I like about it is that it sounds fresh but there's still the 80s guitar jangle. "They're not pretending to be 20 anymore, but there are nods to really classic U2. "It feels familiar, while lyrically they are writing about their age."

LINK: https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c4gx8y7zqz4o