U2: Days of Ash review six new tracks reaffirm the band as a vital political voice

"It's nearly nine years since U2 released a collection of original material, 2017's Songs of Experience. They've hardly been idle since: two tours, two films, a 40-date residency at the Las Vegas Sphere, nearly three hours of stripped-down re-recordings of old material on Songs of Surrender, plus Bono's autobiography, which spawned a solo tour, a stint on Broadway and another film. An impressive workload by any standards."

"Still, you could take the gap between original albums the longest in U2's history as evidence of a problem that's bedevilled the band for nearly 20 years: where do U2 fit into the current musical landscape? The obvious answer is to acquiesce to the heritage rock label, rest on the laurels of their back catalogue and rake it in touring the hits. Clearly that doesn't appeal, as evidenced by Bono and The Edge explaining that a 2017 tour playing 1987's The Joshua Tree in full was not about nostalgia."

"They've tried everything, from reaffirming their experimental credentials on No Line on the Horizon to trying to play 21st-century pop at its own game AutoTune on the vocals, hitmaker Ryan Tedder in the producer's chair, a mooted but unrealised collaboration with David Guetta, a doomed attempt to engage with the era's new means of distribution in their disastrous hook-up with Apple without ever really recapturing the success or the spirit of their late 80s/early 90s imperial phase."

Nearly nine years have passed since U2 released original material in 2017's Songs of Experience. The band undertook two tours, two films, a 40-date residency at the Las Vegas Sphere, nearly three hours of stripped-down re-recordings on Songs of Surrender, and Bono released an autobiography that led to a solo tour, Broadway appearances and a film. The long gap highlights a longstanding problem about where U2 fit in the current musical landscape. Options have included embracing a heritage-rock identity and touring hits, but the band has resisted nostalgia. U2 have experimented with different approaches—experimental albums, AutoTune, pop producers, proposed EDM collaborations and new distribution attempts—without recapturing their late 1980s/early 1990s peak. The recent Days of Ash single aims to revive the rapid protest-song response model exemplified by Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young's Ohio.

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