Inside Abbey Road Studios last November, Arctic Monkeys gathered with producer James Ford to record their first new material since 2022’s The Car. The result arrived yesterday: Opening Night, a new song benefiting War Child’s humanitarian work in conflict zones worldwide.
The track appears on HELP(2), a star-studded charity compilation due March 6 on War Child Records. The album brings together an impressive roster including Big Thief, Cameron Winter, Arooj Aftab, Beck, Olivia Rodrigo, Sampha, King Krule, Depeche Mode, Black Country, New Road, Fontaines D.C., Wet Leg, The Last Dinner Party, Pulp, Beabadoobee, Arlo Parks, Anna Calvi, Bat For Lashes, English Teacher, Ezra Collective, Foals, Young Fathers, and Johnny Marr. Veterans from the original 1995 compilation also appear, including Portishead‘s Beth Gibbons and Blur‘s Damon Albarn and Graham Coxon.
Ford, who has produced or co-produced nearly all of Arctic Monkeys’ albums, stewarded the recording process with what he describes as a collaborative spirit reminiscent of the original. Albarn’s session for Flags saw him joined by Marr on guitar, Kae Tempest, and Fontaines D.C.’s Grian Chatten on vocals. Rodrigo connected with Coxon for a cover of The Magnetic Fields‘ The Book of Love, while Aftab and Beck tackled Jeff Buckley‘s Lilac Wine. Other collaborations include Ezra Collective and Greentea Peng on Helicopters, English Teacher and Coxon on Parasite, and Calvi, Ellie Rowsell, Nilüfer Yanya, and Dove Ellis on Sunday Light.
Listen below:
Oscar-nominated filmmaker Jonathan Glazer served as creative director, implementing a “By Children, For Children” concept. His team handed cameras to children in Ukraine, Gaza, Yemen, and Sudan to film their own perspectives, then invited children into Abbey Road to document the recording sessions without restrictions. “It has been such a privilege to be part of bringing a team together to film this incredible collective effort,” Glazer said.
HELP(2) follows the legendary 1995 HELP compilation, which raised over £1.25 million for War Child’s work in Bosnia. That original album, led by Brian Eno, featured Radiohead, Oasis, Massive Attack, Blur, Sinéad O’Connor, and Manic Street Preachers, all recording their contributions in a single day. The new version addresses today’s conflicts with similar urgency. War Child estimates that one in five children globally, around 520 million, now live in conflict zones, up from one in 10 when the original album was released.
“The original HELP meant a lot to me,” Ford said in a statement. “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 album also features Fontaines D.C. covering O’Connor’s Black Boys On Mopeds, Foals contributing their first new material since 2022’s Life Is Yours, and Depeche Mode covering Buffy Sainte-Marie‘s Universal Soldier.
Arctic Monkeys acknowledged the timing in their own statement, noting their pride in supporting War Child’s work. The release comes during the same week their debut album turns 20, marking two decades since the Sheffield band emerged from MySpace-era obscurity to reshape British rock. This isn’t their first War Child collaboration, either. In 2018, they held a charity show at Royal Albert Hall that was later released as a live record with all proceeds benefiting the organization.
HELP(2) tracklist:
- Arctic Monkeys, Opening Night
- Damon Albarn, Grian Chatten, Johnny Marr & 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
Band Photo by Phoebe Fox
Live Photo by Steve Gerrard
