There is a second Help album on its way and the first taster of it has been released – a new Arctic Monkeys track, their first since 2022.
HELP(2), as it’s styled, is out on March 6 and comes over thirty years since the original Help album, which raised over £1.25 million for children in war zones. Released at the very peak of Britpop, it featured an array of big names – Blur, Oasis, The KLF, Manic Street Preachers, Sinead O’Connor, Stone Roses, Paul Weller, Paul McCartney and Radiohead, all of whom recorded their contributions during just one day: September 4, 1995.
Unlike most charity records, it was specifically created to be an album you’d want to play more than once and it has certainly stood the test of time. Hence - you have to assume - a sequel.
This new album was recorded last November at Abbey Road with James Ford at the controls. Among the artists who have confirmed contributions are Depeche Mode, Olivia Rodrigo, Fontaines DC, Wet Leg, Sampha, Pulp and Beck along with returning alumni from the first album in the shape of Damon Albarn and Graham Coxon and Beth Gibbons from Portishead.
And among the new artists to record contributions are the Arctic Monkeys, who have recorded a brand new track, Opening Night. The band have put out a statement, saying: “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.”
Meanwhile, James Ford has added: “The original Help meant a lot to me and to have the opportunity, given the current news cycle, to help galvanise our music community into doing something as unarguably positive as helping children in war zones seemed like a no-brainer,” he said.
“The experience of making the album itself has been very powerful, and dare I say life-affirming.”
HELP(2) has big shoes to fill: in many ways, the original album was the Britpop Band Aid, a memento of a time when British music was ebullient in disposition and – arguably - unrivalled in its strength and depth. If the new version raises anything like the £1.25 million the original did, it will have more than justified its existence.
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