If final month’s shock EP felt like U2 reacting to the surface world, their newest drop turns sharply inward.
Launched this morning (April 3) on Good Friday, Easter Lily is the band’s second unannounced EP in as many weeks, following Days of Ash, which arrived on Ash Wednesday. However the place that earlier assortment channeled world unrest, Easter Lily a six-song meditation on friendship, grief, religion and the opportunity of renewal.
In a word to followers, Bono describes the band as being deep in “wilderness years,” nonetheless working towards a “noisy, messy” full-length album meant for the stage. Within the meantime, these EPs operate as uncooked, thematic snapshots from a band long-known for processing each the world and its place therein.
“Track for Hal,” that includes the Edge on lead vocals, is a lockdown-era elegy for the late producer Hal Willner, whereas “In a Life” and “Scars” grapple with the sturdiness and fragility of non-public bonds. Elsewhere, “Resurrection Track” leans into open-road spiritualism, and the title observe lands as a devotional meditation on rebirth.
The closing piece, “COEXIST (I Will Bless The Lord At All Instances?),” is constructed round a soundscape by longtime collaborator Brian Eno and framed as a lullaby for folks navigating warfare.
“It’s a time that has our band digging deeper into our lives to discover a wellspring of songs to strive meet the second,” Bono says. “With Easter Lily we ended up asking very private questions like: are our personal relationships as much as these difficult occasions? How arduous do you struggle for friendship? Can our religion survive the mangling of that means that these algorithms like to reward? Is all faith garbage and nonetheless ripping us aside…? Or are there solutions to search out in its crevices? Are there ceremonies, rituals, dances that we is likely to be lacking in our lives? From the ceremony of spring to easter and its promise of rebirth and renewal… Patti Smith’s album Easter gave me a lot hope when it was launched in 1978. I wasn’t but 18. The title is a nod to her.”
Like its predecessor, Easter Lily arrives with out the standard business equipment. “We’ll try hoopla and fanfare at a later date,” Bono writes, “however within the meantime, that is between you and us.” And as with Days of Ash, it’s accompanied by a brand new digital version of Propaganda, the band’s 40-year-old fanzine. It contains every part from studio images by drummer Larry Mullen Jr. to reflections on restoration from bassist Adam Clayton, alongside conversations and essays that mirror the EP’s introspective tone.
