It’s not every day that a rock band looks back at its formative years with as much candor—and humility—as U2 has recently shown. On February 28, 2026, Bono, the band’s ever-vocal frontman, reflected on the group’s earliest days in Dublin, when they were just teenagers with big dreams, limited skills, and a deep reverence for their musical heroes. Speaking to Hotpress, Bono pulled no punches about their attempts to cover Thin Lizzy, the legendary Irish rock group led by Phil Lynott. “We were 16 when we formed the band, and we were trying to learn other people’s songs, and we weren’t very good at it,” he admitted. The memory still stings a bit, it seems. “We tried playing that, just murdered that one. They were such good songs to murder. ‘The Boys Are Back In Town’, we murdered that one. We still play that one in soundcheck.”
For U2, those early stumbles were a rite of passage. Like countless bands before them, they filled out their setlists with covers—sometimes as a tribute, sometimes out of necessity. But, as Bono confessed, their renditions of Thin Lizzy classics like ‘Don’t Believe A Word’ and ‘The Boys Are Back In Town’ didn’t exactly do justice to the originals. “Occasionally one would speak to us, and I remember us trying to work out ‘Don’t Believe A Word’, and I couldn’t understand exactly what he meant,” Bono said, marveling at Lynott’s lyrical device: “Don’t believe me when I tell ya / Not a word of this is true / Don’t believe me when I tell ya / I’m in love with you.”
That level of self-awareness—recognizing when a cover is more a disservice than a tribute—has shaped U2’s approach ever since. These days, they’ve left Thin Lizzy’s songs out of their main set, perhaps as a mark of respect for a band whose magic, in Bono’s words, simply couldn’t be replicated. It’s a small but telling detail in the story of a band that’s grown from scrappy post-punk upstarts to arena-filling giants.
But even as they’ve evolved musically, U2 has never lost its appetite for tackling big themes. Fast-forward to February 2026, and the band is once again in the headlines—this time for the release of Days Of Ash, a six-song EP that marks their first new music in nearly a decade. According to The Spectator, the EP was rush-released in mid-February and dives headlong into the turbulent waters of contemporary protest music.
The timing couldn’t be more pointed. In January 2026, the city of Minneapolis was rocked by the killings of Renée Good and Alex Pretti by ICE agents. The tragedy sent shockwaves through the community and inspired immediate artistic responses. Bruce Springsteen, ever the chronicler of American unrest, wrote, recorded, and released ‘Streets Of Minneapolis’ within days—a modern echo of his folk-protest predecessors. The Spectator described Springsteen’s song as “a turbo-charged version of a Woody Guthrie folk broadside, with simple chords and a fist-pumping tune.” It was a direct, raw response to ongoing events, reminiscent of Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young’s ‘Ohio’ after the Kent State shootings in 1970.
U2, by contrast, took a little longer to respond, but their statement was no less forceful. Days Of Ash includes songs commemorating activists killed in Iran, Palestine, and the United States. Renée Good is referenced directly in the lyrics of ‘American Obituary’, a song that doesn’t shy away from naming names or confronting uncomfortable truths. The lyrics are blunt: “Renée Good, born to die free/ American mother of three/ Seventh day January/ A bullet for each child, you see.”
Critics, as always, are divided. Some have dismissed the EP as “the usual wishy-washy liberal hand-wringing,” as The Spectator put it, noting that Bono’s earnestness and big ideas make him “a veritable magnet for ridicule.” Others have found the music punchy and melodic, with moments of genuine grace. ‘Song Of The Future’, written for Iranian women’s rights protester Sarina Esmailzadeh, killed by Iranian forces in 2022, stands out for its “funky bass and a slinky chorus,” while ‘The Tears Of Things’ draws comparisons to the “labyrinthine ambiguity of Leonard Cohen.”
Perhaps the most poignant track on the EP is ‘One Life At A Time’, commemorating the death of Palestinian activist Awdah Hathaleen in 2025. Here, U2 moves beyond slogans, offering what The Spectator calls “elegant, ambient rock music” and hinting at the self-doubt that often lurks beneath Bono’s bravado: “You say you want to save the world/ Well, how you gonna get that right?”
It’s clear that U2’s latest work isn’t likely to change anyone’s mind about the state of the world—or about the band itself. As The Spectator notes, the “curse of baby boomer bands is to believe that rock’n’roll can still change the world.” Yet, in an era when social media makes it easier to post a rant than to write a song, there’s something stubbornly admirable about artists who still believe in the power of music to bear witness, provoke, and inspire.
The reception to Days Of Ash has been predictably mixed. Those on both the ideological right and left have found plenty to criticize, whether it’s the perceived naiveté of the lyrics or the band’s “old media” footprint. But U2, and Bono in particular, seem undeterred. As the article dryly observes, “to bother is the entire point.”
For a band that once “murdered” Thin Lizzy covers in teenage bedrooms, U2’s journey has been anything but straightforward. They’ve weathered decades of critical barbs, shifting musical trends, and the ever-present charge that their ambitions outstrip their abilities. Yet, whether fumbling through someone else’s song or penning a new protest anthem, they’ve never stopped caring—or trying.
As the dust settles on their latest release, one thing is clear: U2 remains committed to engaging with the world, flaws and all. And in a musical landscape where protest songs are increasingly rare, that stubborn persistence is, in its own way, a kind of victory.