IT’S like buses. You wait eight years, and then two come along at once. On Good Friday, U2 launched a second EP of six songs in just over 40 days: Easter Lily.
If their first EP, Days of Ash, was in your face, full of political fire, shouting at Empire, Easter Lily is private, exploring the band’s interior world, reflecting a sense of renewal. Bono: “[We’re] digging deeper into our lives to find a wellspring of songs to try to meet the moment.” This record plays with themes of faith, the death of Christ, and resurrection, plus a 21st-century psalm, all with a nod to Patti Smith’s 1978 album Easter.
Like Days of Ash, Easter Lily was, incredibly, pulled together in two weeks. The band again decided to take a break from making their next album. Edge: “It’s not like we planned on releasing them like this. It’s as if the songs are the boss. You have to do what they say or they’ll abandon you for someone else.”
U2 are currently recording in a near-derelict Dublin house with the producer Jacknife Lee, a collaborator since 2004’s How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb. The aim of Easter Lily, according to Lee, is to avoid excess (“You can hide not-so-great ideas by putting on layers”) and to aim for precision and clarity: “Every part has to count. There is no hiding.”
Lee catching two hours sleep each night, the band created a new song and finished off others while completely rewriting all the lyrics. Despite — maybe because of — the constraints, U2 sound as fresh as ever, raring to engage with their audience. Lee: “This is an important era for the band. They have not sounded so energised in decades.”
“Song for Hal” is an ode to the musician and producer Hal Willner, who worked on various U2 projects, including the Million Dollar Hotel film soundtrack with Bono (2000) and U2’s Marc Bolan tribute, “Bang a Gong (Get It On)” (2017). Hal died during the pandemic with his family around him. Many did not have that comfort. Hence, the song is defiant: “You’re not alone in the bright blue air / you’re not alone if there’s no one there at all. . . You’re not alone when you’re on your knees / Not alone if no one sees you fall.” Unusually, Edge sings lead vocal throughout (“Numb” and “Van Diemen’s Land” are the other exceptions).
Faith and friendship are clearly a major dynamic in the band and their close-knit community. “In a Life” examines how this operates in “nihilistic times”. Edge is wary of the “coolness that creeps into relationships”, with lyrics extolling the virtues of community: “I feel alone / I need it known / I never achieved anything on my own.”
“Scars” tackles the nature of true beauty, referring to the wounds of Christ: “Put your hands on my hand / Feel the nails of the state / Punching holes in the innocent / To fill them with hate.” Edge reflects that “scars are helpful. Mistakes are helpful, if they can be owned. When they’re denied that’s bad news.” It is a reminder that Christ’s scars were inflicted by the State in combination with religious authority. Edge wryly notes: “Church and state is a dangerous combo.”
In “Resurrection Song”, there are allusions to what Edge calls “bumper-sticker Christianity” (“Have we got heaven for you / Or you can go to hell together”), as well as a swipe at themselves (“the death and resurrection show”). But there is hope: “Next life was waiting through an open door / You said it was better than the one before.”
Edge appreciates that it is easy to “bump into clichés” when talking about spiritual topics, but U2 typically manage to avoid this, often adding unexpected twists. “Easter Parade” is another example: “You speak to the part of me that cannot speak / I can’t see you but I know you’re there / I will always worship what I cannot keep” — and then the sting: “‘And not every song will be a prayer.” It ends with the refrain “Kyrie Eleison”. It is U2’s consistent honesty that makes all this God-talk palatable. Edge acknowledges this: “Faith has to involve doubt. For us, shaped by the Christian tradition, it’s all wrapped up in Easter.”
Even the final track, “Coexist (I will bless the Lord at all times?)”, is essentially a question as well as a response of gratitude. Coexistence was a theme explored on the 2006 Vertigo tour, examining how the three monotheistic religions could work together in respect and harmony. Bono riffs extempore over an ambient soundscape created by Brian Eno, another longtime collaborator. “The driver of the ambulance unpacks his shirt pressed and neat / To honour the hurt and the hungry he will later greet / There’s not so much road left here and no road signs / Drones hover without any consciousness over war crimes / I will bless the Lord at all times?”
I can imagine singing this modern-day psalm on a Sunday morning. That balance of gritty realism and hard-won faith is characteristic of the Psalter as well as of U2’s lyrical resilience.
Why songs about transcendence now? Edge has “a hunch that our audience is as hungry as we are for something to hold on to in these difficult times”. It feels as if U2 are seriously revitalised, taking on the world, asking questions of God, honest about their faith and doubts — all mixed up together in a gloriously profound tribute to Eastertide.
Will they ever finish their next album? Or should I now be waiting for the Pentecost EP?
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