James Ford talks us through the huge new War Child ‘Help(2)’ album – track-by-track

Get the lowdown of each and every song on the new history-making compilation, featuring Arctic Monkeys, Fontaines D.C., Olivia Rodrigo, Damon Albarn, Pulp, Foals, Cameron Winter, and loads more The post James Ford talks us through the huge new War Child ‘Help(2)’ album – track-by-track appeared first on NME. NewsMusic News James Ford talks us through the huge new War Child ‘Help(2)’ album – track-by-track Get the lowdown of each and every song on the new history-making compilation, featuring Arctic Monkeys, Fontaines D.C., Olivia Rodrigo, Damon Albarn, Pulp, Foals, Cameron Winter, and loads more By Andrew Trendell 5th March 2026 A choir assembled for the War Child 'Help(2)' album, featuring Damon Albarn, Jarvis Cocker, Johnny Marr, Carl Barat and many more. Credit: Charlie Barclay-Harris Producer James Ford has spoken to NME to provide an exclusive track-by-track guide to War Child’s star-studded new ‘Help(2)’ album, featuring Arctic Monkeys, Fontaines D.C., Wet Leg, Young Fathers, English Teacher, Pulp, Damon Albarn and many more. READ MORE: Young Fathers on their ‘Help(2)’ song, ‘Don’t Fight The Young’: “It felt like that’s what needs to be said from us at this time” Arriving tomorrow (Friday March 6), the new releases acts as a follow-up to and was inspired by the landmark 1995 ‘Help’ record for War Child. The original and legendary Brian Eno-led compilation featured the likes of Oasis, Blur, Radiohead, Orbital, Portishead, Massive Attack, Suede, Sinéad O’Connor, and Manic Street Preachers, raising over £1.25million and selling more 700,000 copies. This was followed by further charity records including 2002’s ‘1 Love’, 2003’s ‘Hope’, 2005’s ‘Help!: A Day In The Life’ and 2009’s ‘War Child Presents Heroes’. For over 30 years, War Child has provided essential work to protect, educate, and support the mental health of children affected by war. ‘Help(2)’ comes at an extreme crisis point, with conflicts in Palestine, Ukraine, Sudan, Syria and beyond. Produced and stewarded by James Ford (Arctic Monkeys, Gorillaz, Florence + The Machine, Blur, Pet Shop Boys) ‘Help(2)’ was recorded through “a close collaboration with Abbey Road Studios” mostly during one week in November 2025. This was all done as Ford continued to battle leukaemia. “War Child approached me about doing a follow-up to ‘Help’ before I got sick at the end of 2024,” he told NME. “The 30-year anniversary was looming. I’ve 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. “My 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’ve waited for me to go through the whole of my treatment.” War Child’s new ‘Help(2)’ album. Credit: Press 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 “started reaching out to managers and calling in all the favours we could”, while also wanting to branch out to more US artists this time, such as Geese frontman Cameron Winter and Olivia Rodrigo. “What ended up on the album were the people that could turn around a song in the limited amount of time we had,” Ford explained. “We’re 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.” Still, Ford said that despite the influx of artists who wanted to add to the ‘Help’ legacy and make a difference to the lives of children suffering through war, a number of acts they approached didn’t want to be part of it as they felt it was “too political”. “Everything feels very scary and politicised at the minute, but helping children in war zones is a fairly apolitical and uncontroversial thing,” he told us. “Still, there were a few people who thought it was a little too political, which kind of baffles me a bit.” Pulp’s Jarvis Cocker with the all-child camera crew at the making of War Child’s new ‘Help(2)’ album. Credit: Lawrence Watson One band to really grab music fans’ attention were Arctic Monkeys, who had not released any new music since 2022’s ‘The Car’ and have caused much speculation online as to their future. Asked if their lead single track ‘Opening Night’ could be their swan song, Ford replied: “No comment! They’re all still great mates and they may do something again, but there’s nothing on the cards right now.” 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 ‘Help(2)’ track-by-track, and how history came to be made once again with the best acts of today. Arctic Monkeys – ‘Opening Night’ “Al[ex Turner], along with Fontaines D.C., was probably one of the first people I approached. For obvious reasons, I’ve got a longstandin