Song Of The Future Review | U2 | Single Review

Guide

Song Of The Future Review: U2 are back, and they have not come quietly. The Irish rock veterans returned in February 2026 with a surprise six track EP titled Days Of Ash, a raw and politically charged body of work that nobody saw coming but somehow feels like the record the world needed right now.

Among its most affecting moments is Song Of The Future, a protest song written in honour of Sarina Esmailzadeh, a 16 year old Iranian schoolgirl who lost her life at the hands of security forces during the Woman, Life, Freedom uprising in 2022. Produced by Jacknife Lee and driven by The Edge’s signature guitar work alongside a revitalised Larry Mullen Jr. back behind the drums, the track is U2 doing what U2 do best when they are truly switched on, turning real human loss into music that refuses to look away.

Song Analysis (Song Of The Future Review)

It is always great to witness a band with forty plus years behind them still managing to write a song that feels urgent and alive. “Song Of The Future”, part of U2’s surprise 2026 EP Days Of Ash, is built around the real life story of Sarina Esmailzadeh, a 16 year old Iranian girl who was beaten and killed by security forces during the Woman, Life, Freedom protests in 2022.

I had to sit with that for a moment before I could even think about the music itself, because the weight of it is immediate. Bono does not try to over poeticize the tragedy. He lets the name carry the chorus, repeating “Sarina” until it feels less like a lyric and more like someone calling out to a person who should still be here. That choice alone separates this from a lot of politically motivated rock music that tends to use real names as decoration rather than as the actual emotional center.

Musically, this is where it gets genuinely interesting to me. The Edge leans into something that echoes the fizzy, phasing guitar textures from the Achtung Baby and Zooropa era, which is not a sound I expected them to return to so fully in 2026. There is a restless, almost danceable momentum underneath the grief, and producer Jacknife Lee keeps the whole thing driving forward without letting it tip into stadium bombast.

The rhythm section is doing real work here. Larry Mullen Jr., back behind the kit after his absence during the Sphere shows in Las Vegas, plays with a controlled aggression that gives the track its backbone. At around four minutes, it is not trying to be epic in the traditional U2 sense. It is tighter than that, more focused, which actually serves the subject matter better than a sweeping eight minute build would have.

The song holds grief and defiance in the same breath without collapsing under the contradiction. The line about love being a verb and not a noun, lifted from the schoolgirl’s own worldview, lands harder in context than it might on paper. There is pitch correction used throughout Bono’s vocal, which some people have noted feels slightly clinical for a song this raw, and I think that is a fair criticism.

But I also think the polished surface creates a strange tension with the subject matter, almost like the production itself is holding something back that keeps threatening to break through. Whether that was intentional or just a byproduct of how modern rock gets made, it gives the song a quality I keep returning to. It does not entirely resolve. And for a song about a 16 year old girl whose future was stolen, maybe that is exactly right.

Song Of The Future – U2 Lyrics

Verse 1
The future, as everyone knows
Is where we’re gonna be spending the rest of our life
Who said the future is closed
Never saw the promise in her eyes

Liberty
And I’m running my mouth off
Running my mouth off
It’s not poetry
And I’m running my mouth off again

Chorus
Sarina Sarina
She’s the song of the future
Playing in my mind
Gotta know, gotta find a way to get to her
She’s holding up the sign

Post-Chorus
All alone
All alone
But not alone
Yeah, we’re not alone
Sarina Sarina
She’s the song of the future, yeah

Verse 2
Picture, heaven is closed
All the classroom prophets gone to ground
Schoolgirl says everyone knows
Love is a verb and not a noun

Or so it seems
It has me running my mouth off
Running my mouth off
It’s not poetry
But I’m running my mouth off again

Chorus
Sarina Sarina
She’s the song of the future
Playing in my mind
Gotta know, gotta find a way to get to her
She’s holding up the sign

Post-Chorus
All alone
All alone
But not alone
Yeah, we’re not alone
Sarina Sarina
She’s the song of the future

Guitar Solo

Chorus
Sarina Sarina
She’s the song of the future
Playing in my mind
Gotta know, gotta find a way to get to her
She’s holding up the sign

Post-Chorus
All alone
All alone
You’re not alone
Yeah, we’re not alone
Sarina Sarina
She’s the song of the future
Playing in my mind

Outro
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Meaning (My Opinion) (Song Of The Future Review)

U2’s Song of the Future gets under your skin in a way that a lot of protest music simply does not. Written for Sarina Esmailzadeh, the 16 year old Iranian schoolgirl who was killed during the Woman, Life, Freedom uprising in 2022, the track never tries to speak for her so much as it tries to keep her name alive. And that is exactly what the chorus does. Bono repeats “Sarina” over and over until it stops feeling like a lyric and starts feeling like someone refusing to let a person be forgotten.

The line about running one’s mouth off lands differently once you sit with it. There is something almost self aware about it, like the band acknowledging that words will never be enough, but staying quiet is not an option either.

What gives the song real staying power is how it handles the idea of being alone. The post chorus shifts from “all alone” to “but not alone” in a way that feels earned rather than forced. It is not a neat resolution. It is more like someone reaching for a hand in the dark and actually finding one.

Sarina’s story becomes less of a footnote and more of a thread that runs through the whole thing, connecting her courage to everyone who has ever held up a sign knowing full well the cost. The song mourns her, yes, but it also carries her forward, and that tension between grief and defiance is what makes it linger long after the track ends.