U2 are not waiting for the album. The Easter Lily EP, a six-track standalone collection out now via Island Records, arrives as the band continues recording their next studio record, and it is something distinctly apart from whatever comes next. Where last month’s ‘Days of Ash EP’ responded to chaos in the outside world, ‘Easter Lily’ turns inward, exploring friendship, loss, hope, and renewal from a much more private place.
The track list carries real emotional range. “Song for Hal” is a COVID-19 lockdown lament with The Edge on lead vocals, written for the band’s friend and music-maker Hal Willner, who would have turned 70 on Easter Monday and passed away nearly six years ago to the day. “In a Life” celebrates friendship. “Scars” offers encouragement and acceptance. “Resurrection Song” is a road trip into the unknown. “Easter Parade” is a devotional celebration of rebirth. Closing the EP, “COEXIST (I Will Bless The Lord At All Times?)” is a lullaby for parents of children caught up in war, built around a new soundscape from Brian Eno.
Bono’s statement with the release is characteristically generous and searching. He describes the EP as deeply personal, born from questions about relationships, faith, friendship, and the ceremonies and rituals that might be missing from modern life. The title itself is a nod to Patti Smith’s 1978 album ‘Easter’, which Bono credits as a source of hope when he was not yet 18.
The EP is accompanied by a special digital e-zine edition of Propaganda, the band’s legendary fan magazine now marking its 40th anniversary. This edition features sleeve notes from The Edge, Adam Clayton on art and recovery, a conversation between Bono and Franciscan friar Richard Rohr, in-the-studio photographs shot by Larry Mullen Jr., a piece on producer Jacknife Lee, and Gavin Friday’s tribute to Hal Willner.
‘Easter Lily EP’ is available now on all digital platforms. The noisy, messy, unreasonably colourful album Bono promises is still on its way.