{"id":2314700,"date":"2026-03-05T23:12:30","date_gmt":"2026-03-05T23:12:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/?p=2314700"},"modified":"2026-03-05T23:12:30","modified_gmt":"2026-03-05T23:12:30","slug":"james-ford-talks-us-through-the-huge-new-war-child-help2-album-track-by-track","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/james-ford-talks-us-through-the-huge-new-war-child-help2-album-track-by-track\/","title":{"rendered":"James Ford talks us through the huge new War Child ‘Help(2)’ album \u2013 track-by-track"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Producer James Ford<\/a> has spoken to NME<\/em> to provide an exclusive track-by-track guide to War Child\u2019s star-studded new \u2018Help(2)\u2019 album, featuring Arctic Monkeys<\/a>, Fontaines D.C.<\/a>, Wet Leg<\/a>, Young Fathers<\/a>, English Teacher<\/a>, Pulp,<\/a> Damon Albarn<\/a> and many more.<\/p>\n

Arriving tomorrow (Friday March 6), the new releases acts as a follow-up to and was inspired by the landmark 1995 \u2018Help\u2019 record for War Child. The original and legendary Brian Eno<\/a>-led compilation featured the likes of Oasis<\/a>, Blur<\/a>, Radiohead<\/a>, Orbital<\/a>, Portishead<\/a>, Massive Attack<\/a>, Suede<\/a>, Sin\u00e9ad O\u2019Connor<\/a>, and Manic Street Preachers<\/a>, raising over \u00a31.25million and selling more 700,000 copies. This was followed by further charity records including 2002\u2019s \u20181 Love\u2019, 2003\u2019s \u2018Hope\u2019, 2005\u2019s \u2018Help!: A Day In The Life\u2019 and 2009\u2019s \u2018War Child Presents Heroes\u2019.<\/p>\n

For over 30 years, War Child has provided essential work to protect, educate, and support the mental health of children affected by war. \u2018Help(2)\u2019 comes at an extreme crisis point, with conflicts in Palestine, Ukraine, Sudan, Syria and beyond.<\/p>\n

Produced and stewarded by James Ford (Arctic Monkeys, Gorillaz<\/a>, Florence + The Machine<\/a>,\u00a0Blur, Pet Shop Boys<\/a>) \u2018Help(2)\u2019 was recorded through \u201ca close collaboration with Abbey Road Studios\u201d mostly during one week in November 2025. This was all done as Ford continued to battle leukaemia<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cWar Child approached me about doing a follow-up to \u2018Help\u2019 before I got sick at the end of 2024,\u201d he told NME<\/em>. \u201cThe 30-year anniversary was looming. I\u2019ve always been a fan of theirs, and I was a huge fan of the first record. It was a real cultural moment when it came out so I was excited to help them put out another one.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy health then took a turn for the worse, and the whole thing got put on hold. I thought they might have gone somewhere else but they\u2019ve waited for me to go through the whole of my treatment.\u201d<\/p>\n

War Child\u2019s new \u2018Help(2)\u2019 album. Credit: Press<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

After picking up the conversation with War Child last summer, Ford teamed up with Transgressive Records boss Toby L, who helped with day-to-day operations at Abbey Road and A&R decisions as he worked as creative project leader. Together, they \u201cstarted reaching out to managers and calling in all the favours we could\u201d, while also wanting to branch out to more US artists this time, such as Geese<\/a> frontman Cameron Winter<\/a> and Olivia Rodrigo<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat ended up on the album were the people that could turn around a song in the limited amount of time we had,\u201d Ford explained.\u00a0\u201cWe\u2019re proud of the result. We think it holds together as a record that flows. The artists are a pretty good reflection of our current British and Irish music scene, as well as some great American names.\u201d<\/p>\n

Still, Ford said that despite the influx of artists who wanted to add to the \u2018Help\u2019 legacy and make a difference to the lives of children suffering through war, a number of acts they approached didn\u2019t want to be part of it as they felt it was \u201ctoo political\u201d<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cEverything feels very scary and politicised at the minute, but helping children in war zones is a fairly apolitical and uncontroversial thing,\u201d he told us. \u201cStill, there were a few people who thought it was a little too political, which kind of baffles me a bit.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Pulp's
Pulp\u2019s Jarvis Cocker with the all-child camera crew at the making of War Child\u2019s new \u2018Help(2)\u2019 album. Credit: Lawrence Watson<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

One band to really grab music fans\u2019 attention were Arctic Monkeys, who had not released any new music since 2022\u2019s \u2018The Car\u2019<\/a>\u00a0and have caused much speculation online<\/a> as to their future. Asked if their lead single track \u2018Opening Night\u2019 could be their swan song, Ford replied: \u201cNo comment! They\u2019re all still great mates and they may do something again<\/a>, but there\u2019s nothing on the cards right now.\u201d<\/p>\n

To get the lowdown on the full album, read on below as producer Ford talks us through the origins and making of each song on \u2018Help(2)\u2019 track-by-track, and how history came to be made once again with the best acts of today.<\/p>\n

Arctic Monkeys \u2013 \u2018Opening Night\u2019<\/strong><\/h2>\n

\u201cAl[ex Turner<\/a>], along with Fontaines D.C., was probably one of the first people I approached. For obvious reasons, I\u2019ve got a longstanding working relationship with those guys. It was kind of a big ask because the Monkeys are not touring at the moment or in the studio, and they didn\u2019t particularly have any plans to be. They all live in different parts of the world these days, but they really pulled out all the stops to be a part of it.<\/p>\n

\"Arctic
Arctic Monkeys credit: Phoebe Fox<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

\u201cAl had the demo of a song that was written around the time of [2013 album] \u2018AM\u2019<\/a>, actually. The chorus lyric and chorus music were from that era. He said he always thought that there was something in it, but it never really went anywhere. We batted around that idea. He wanted to write a new verse, I talked him into writing a new middle eight.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s got his own little studio setup and he put that little drum machine in the intro just to keep him in time. I loved the way it sounded with that shonky acoustic guitar. The idea was for it to start quite lo-fi and then build into the full band thing.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe main track was recorded at Abbey Road during the main session, but my health took another knock so I was at the ICU with some pipes sticking out of my neck. Essentially, we ended up finishing it off with me on a studio laptop in the hospital still. I was mixing and rearranging it in the hospital, which isn\u2019t the way we normally work. I think it\u2019s a nice mix of the older \u2018AM\u2019 and some of the newer stuff.\u201d<\/p>\n