It’s been nine years since new U2 music, and then we get two EPs only 40 days apart, with Days of Ash and now Easter Lily.

I’m not going to go song by song, but it is quintessentially U2, from Bono’s soaring lyrics to that signature guitar. There’s even a song with Edge on vocals that sounds so much like Bono you might not notice at first. It’s unabashedly religious (I mean, with that title, duh).

“In a Life,” “Scars,” and “Resurrection Song” jump out at me as the best songs, though “COEXIST (I Will Bless The Lord at All Times?) is a beautifully eerie dirge.

But my fear is they all sound like U2 songs we’ve heard before, and not the great ones. I love to be wrong when I write these initial reactions. But that’s my sense. Even in my half a dozen listens, I have trouble distinguishing those three songs I said might be the best. Even on Days of Ash the songs had more variation. (Don’t get me wrong, I like it—they just sound the same.)

What I find especially intriguing is how they talk about this EP. Here’s Bono introducing it:

“We are in the studio, still working towards a noisy, messy, ‘unreasonably colour xerox’ album to play LIVE… which is where U2 lives. We still look to vivid rock n roll as an act of resistance against all this awfulness on our small screens. These are for sure ‘wilderness years’ for so many of us looking at the mayhem out there in the world. It’s a time that has our band digging deeper into our lives to find a wellspring of songs to try to meet the moment…

“With Easter Lily we ended up asking very personal questions like: Are our own relationships up to these challenging times? How hard do you fight for friendship? Can our faith survive the mangling of meaning that those algorithms love to reward? Is all religion rubbish and still ripping us apart?” (Facebook)

They’re struggling with these times, which is reassuring to hear. I think we all feel a little of that.

“While we accept how absurd it is to talk about faith and friendship in such nihilistic times, we are unrepentant… this is emotionally direct which for some will be uncool. But that’s the point… to be confrontational and challenging to the coolness that creeps into relationships.” (Facebook)

I like that they’re unrepentant. I think there’s often been an impression of U2 as a band chasing cool. I don’t think it’s accurate, but I think people dismiss them for it. From having the ego to rub shoulders with greats on Rattle and Hum to reinventing themselves with Achtung Baby, from the try-hard feel of Pop, to the soaring earnestness of the early 2000s—even showing up on everyone’s iPhone with Songs of Experience. It’s like they’ve been holding back lately, afraid to put something out and be ignored or irrelevant. And now they’re just letting it hang out.

I kept hoping for U2’s last EP to break out, with everyone talking about “American Obituary” the way they did Bruce Springsteen’s “Streets of Minneapolis.” But they never did.

Now I suspect U2 is OK with that. They’re not trying very hard, and that’s intentional because these aren’t EPs trying to reclaim their space or connect with a new generation. It’s for the fans: “We will attempt hoopla and fanfare at a later date to remind the rest of the world we exist but in the meantime… this is between you and us.”