Arctic Monkeys, Olivia Rodrigo (covering Magnetic Fields), Cameron Winter, Fontaines DC & more contribute to new ‘HELP’ War Child benefit album

Arctic Monkeys at Abbey Road photo by Phoebe Fox

Back in 1995, a bunch of the biggest artists in the UK — including Radiohead, Blur, Oasis, Massive Attack, Paul McCartney, Paul Weller, Portishead, Sinead O’Connor, and Suede — all recorded and mixed new songs which would be released as the compilation album HELP a week later, all in support of charity War Child UK. The album raised £1.2 million for War Child UK’s support of children caught in the Bosnian conflict.

Now, a new group of musicians have made another HELP album to aid War Child UK’s support of children in war-torn Ukraine, Gaza, Yemen, Sudan and other areas. HELP(2) will be out March 6 via War Child Records, and like the first, it’s got a staggering lineup of artists, including Arctic Monkeys, Olivia Rodrigo (covering The Magnetic Fields’ “The Book of Love”), Fontaines DC (covering Sinead O’Connor’s “Black Boys on Mopeds”), Cameron Winter, Pulp, Depeche Mode, Damon Albarn / Grian Chatten / Kae Tempest, Wet Leg, Black Country New Road, The Last Dinner Party, Arooj Aftab & Beck, English Teacher & Graham Coxon, King Krule, Bat For Lashes, Beth Gibbons, Ezra Collective & Greentea Peng, and more. Preorder the album here.

The album was overseen by producer James Ford and recorded mostly over a single week at London’s Abbey Road Studios. “I felt incredibly honored when War Child asked me to work on HELP(2),” says Ford. “The original HELP meant a lot to me and to have the opportunity, given the current news cycle, to help galvanize our music community into doing something as unarguably positive as helping children in war zones seemed like a no brainer. The experience of making the album itself has been very powerful, and dare I say life affirming for me personally, against the backdrop of a very difficult year. I’m extremely proud of the results and of the efforts made by all involved. I can’t wait for people to hear this very special record.”

You can listen to Arctic Monkeys’ contribution, “Opening Night,” which is their first new music in four years. The band say, “When James Ford called and asked if we’d contribute to the HELP(2) album we set to work on a song idea and assembled in Abbey Road to record it. We are proud to support the invaluable work War Child do and hope the record will make a positive difference to the lives of children affected by war.” Listen, and check out the full HELP(2) tracklist, below.

To document the sessions, ’90s-music-video-wunderkind-turned-Oscar-winning-filmmaker Jonathan Glazer put cameras in the hands of children to shoot shoot video at Abbey Road. Glazer also did the artwork for the album. You can watch a trailer for HELP(2) below.

HELP(2)
Arctic Monkeys – “Opening Night”
Damon Albarn, Grian Chatten & Kae Tempest – “Flags”
Black Country, New Road – “Strangers”
The Last Dinner Party – “Let’s do it again!”
Beth Gibbons – “Sunday Morning”
Arooj Aftab & Beck – “Lilac Wine”
King Krule – “The 343 Loop”
Depeche Mode – “Universal Soldier”
Ezra Collective & Greentea Peng – “Helicopters”
Arlo Parks – “Nothing I Could Hide”
English Teacher & Graham Coxon – “Parasite”
Beabadoobee – “Say Yes”
Big Thief – “Relive, Redie”
Fontaines D.C. – “Black Boys on Mopeds”
Cameron Winter – “Warning”
Young Fathers – “Don’t Fight the Young”
Pulp – “Begging for Change”
Sampha – “Naboo”
Wet Leg – “Obvious”
Foals – “When the War is Finally Done”
Bat For Lashes – “Carried my girl”
Anna Calvi, Ellie Rowsell, Nilüfer Yanya & Dove Ellis – “Sunday Light”
Olivia Rodrigo – “The Book of Love”