After breaking an eight year silence on Ash Wednesday with the Days of Ash EP, we should have guessed that U2, a band who have trumpeted their strong Christian ethos since Day One, would return with six more songs marking the end of Lent and the traditional Christian period of sacrifice and reflection.
Where the tracks on Days of Ash focused on conflicts in the world, the six songs on Easter Lily, appropriately, explore themes of personal loss, metaphorical resurrection and redemption in a literal sense.
The opener Song For Hal is inspired by the passing of their friend American music producer Hal Willner and partially recalls the trauma of the COVID era.
The Edge's opening lead guitar lick is an attention-grabbing statement before Adam's bass rumbles in atop Larry's hearteningly energised drums.
After 45 seconds it is The Edge, not Bono who, in a very Bonoesque vocal style, intones 'Did you hear 'Forever?' Was it playing soft and low?' Apart from most notably on the tracks Numb and Van Diemen's Land, The Edge rarely takes lead vocals and he should do it more often.
Bono retakes the microphone for In A Life. The Edge’s chiming chord progression is quite like City of Blinding Lights. It seems to be building to a big chorus, but having been stirred with lines such as ‘still I’m learning how to kneel, what not to feel’ it dives off from the lower level board. It makes a splash, just not as big as the one we might have expected.
Meanwhile Scars’ lyrics references Christ’s crucifixion quite viscerally. In the Propaganda ezine that accompanies the EP, The Edge says that they were harking back to early influences such as Siouxsie & the Banshees, hinting that an EDM version with Dutch DJ/producer Martin Garrix may surface later.
Larry’s pounding drums which counterpoint The Edge’s circular riff on Resurrection Song seems like a further nod to Siouxsie & the Banshees bringing to mind the band’s percussionist Budgie.
U2 have always kept a keen ear out for ideas from younger artists and the way Bono sings ‘are ya holding on?’ is reminiscent of Fontaines D.C.’s plaintive ‘are you hanging on?’ from their 2019 track Roy’s Tune.
Easter Parade has more than a hint of the Beatles’ Tomorrow Never Knows as it gets into its stride. It barrels along purposefully for six minutes and its chorus echoes their own 1980 track Gloria in the Edge’s harmonies and when Bono sings ‘something in me died but I was no longer afraid’.
On the closing track Co-Exist (I Will Bless The Lord At All Times?) although there is no mention of specific theatres of conflict when Bono sings: ‘drones hover without any consciousness over war crimes’, Ukraine, Gaza and latterly Iran comes quickly to mind.
The Edge says in the Ezine that its synth chord backing track originates in sessions with Brian Eno and it recalls their collaboration on the Passengers’ track Miss Sarajevo.
When Bono sings maybe defiantly, perhaps despairingly ‘I will bless the lord at all times?’ it seems to refer to the paradox within religiosity: Why, if the tenets of Abrahamic religions are peaceful, have the members of different septs been slaughtering each other for centuries? There is only the width of a communion host between the tenets of each of them anyway.
Also, as Bono infers in the ezine, if Jesus Christ was as radical as he is portrayed in the bible, he would have probably disapproved of culturally-dominant religions.
If redemption is a large part of the concept of Easter, then Adam’s piece in the ezine about his struggles with alcohol is appropriate and admirable.
There are also interviews with other figures such as Father Richard Rohr, a mentor to Bono for many years, who like Bono is constantly questioning the nature of faith and the role of organized religions.
Jacknife Lee, who produced the two Eps and is working with them on their next album, insists that ‘U2 have not sounded so energised in decades’.
While he is hardly going to be disparaging, with first Days of Ash and I would say the superior Easter Lily it bodes extremely well for the next album by the Irish rock giants.
U2 Easter Lily (Island) is out now.