WAR CHILD RECORDS - HELP(2)

The name "Help" alone is enough to conjure up some daunting precedents. One's mind might drift to the Beatles, to the album and the 1965 film, but here the direct reference is another one: the celebrated compilation released by War Child in 1995, which finds its natural successor today in "HELP(2)". A new collection of wildly different artists, united by a cause that has lost none of its urgency: support for children affected by armed conflict.

In cases like this the risk is always twofold: on one side, the reflex of celebration; on the other, the effect of a glorified holding pen for star names. This record has the merit of striking a more concrete, less self-congratulatory balance. The reference to the 1995 project remains inevitable, but it works mainly as a term of comparison: that name evokes a specific era, an idea of musical mobilisation that back then seemed almost natural and today looks far rarer. That's why "HELP(2)" is compelling not just for its cast, once again vast and prestigious, but for the question it carries with it: whether a charity compilation can still have a genuine sense of purpose - cultural and artistic, not just symbolic.

The value of the initiative is self-evident and defines the context without softening the musical judgement. Separating the product from its purpose would mean misreading it from the outset. But a music review must ultimately focus above all on the artistic content, and the interesting thing is that "HELP(2)" doesn't try too hard to hide its collective nature.

Beyond the differences in style, the collection also finds common ground in its content: many of the chosen tracks, whether unreleased material or covers, directly or indirectly touch on themes such as war, pain, solidarity, resilience and social responsibility.

The tracklist, overseen by James Ford and recorded at Abbey Road Studios in November 2025, lines up very different personalities, sounds and approaches; the disjointedness is palpable, but the collection lets this plurality remain visible without forcing the connections too much. What holds it together above all is the overall mood: the distances between one track and the next remain evident, but the listening experience retains continuity and a fairly clear identity.

In this context, "Opening Night" by the Arctic Monkeys is far more than a mere drawcard name. It's one of the pillars of the whole compilation, both for the band's weight and because it represents the group's first new track in four years, as well as the single chosen to lead the project. The track opens the collection with elegance and restraint, never coming across as a mere showcase.

Alongside Alex Turner's band, the run of unreleased tracks defines the album's most vital side. "Flags", entrusted to the elite union of Damon Albarn, Grian Chatten and Kae Tempest, is one of the best-realized collaborations: a restrained, reflective track streaked with melancholy that well reflects each artist's temperament, while "Strangers" by Black Country, New Road brings into the project their distinctive way of stretching the song format between fragility, collective construction and restrained tension. Worth a special mention too is "Obvious" by Wet Leg: born as an outtake and left in the live set for a long time without making it onto record, it rests on an essential riff and an almost minimalist tone, revealing a less jagged side of the Isle of Wight band.

Among the most evocative moments is "Warning" by Cameron Winter, frontman of Geese, who delivers one of the most intense, unsettling and compelling episodes of the entire sequence. The track moves over hypnotic strings and builds a suspended, nocturnal, almost sinister atmosphere, while Winter's voice adds urgency and tension, confirming the oblique, disturbing songwriting that he and his band have already accustomed us to.

Last Dinner Party, with "Let's Do It Again!", bring their feverish theatricality to the tracklist, injecting movement into a collection often oriented toward shadowier registers. Arlo Parks, with "Nothing I Could Hide", moves instead in a more intimate, confessional zone. Pulp, with "Begging for Change", evoke an immediately recognizable voice, poised between civic nerve and disenchanted clarity, while Sampha, with "Naboo", adds one of the most suspended, introverted moments of the tracklist.

Next come Foals with the elegiac "When The War Is Finally Done", Big Thief with the restless, intimate "Relive, Redie" and Ezra Collective & Greentea Peng with "Helicopters", which open the album up to a different, more combative rhythmic flow. Add to these the motorik souls of Young Fathers, the harrowing essentiality of Bat For Lashes, and the excellent cinematic choral quality of "Sunday Light", presented by the ensemble made up of Anna Calvi, Dove Ellis, Ellie Rowsell (Wolf Alice) and Nilüfer Yanya, one of the most surprising encounters of the entire collection.

A decisive part of the record nonetheless rests on the covers, which in several places end up leaving an impression that's sometimes deeper than the unreleased tracks. Here the programme puts the present in dialogue with a musical memory already loaded with meaning. Grian Chatten, this time with his Fontaines D.C., revisits Sinéad O'Connor's "Black Boys On Mopeds" with its hardness and tension intact. Olivia Rodrigo, with "The Book of Love", reinterprets the Magnetic Fields track and places it neatly toward the end of the album. Depeche Mode rework in electro-rock form "Universal Soldier" by Buffy Sainte-Marie, later taken to worldwide success by Donovan in 1965, broadening the perspective of a collection otherwise very tied to present-day concerns. Beth Gibbons, with a spectral, restrained version of "Sunday Morning" by Velvet Underground, goes in the opposite direction: narrowing the focus, lowering the tone and delivering one of the record's most delicate moments.

Equally well-judged is the idea of entrusting "Lilac Wine" to Arooj Aftab and Beck: the song, written by James Shelton and made famous above all by Nina Simone and Jeff Buckley, resurfaces here in an ethereal, hypnotic form, consistent with the sense of suspension that runs through much of the collection. Beabadoobee tackles Elliott Smith's "Say Yes" with tenderness and vulnerability, while the pairing of English Teacher & Graham Coxon choose Nick Drake's "Parasite", its original oblique fragility respected and relaunched by Lily Fontaine's chameleon-like vocal performance.

Worth noting too is a further curiosity: on the vinyl edition and as a ghost track on the CD appears "Acquiesce" by Oasis, the famous B-side from the era of "What's The Story Morning Glory?", which over the years has become one of the cornerstones of the band's live repertoire and is often cited as one of the best B-sides of the entire britpop era. In this case the track takes on added value, since it marks the first physical release of a live recording taken from the 2025 Gallagher brothers' reunion world tour, captured during the last of seven consecutive dates at Wembley Stadium. It's an addition that is anything but marginal: beyond the artistic and symbolic resonance, the core meaning of the song also resurfaces, tied to an idea of solidarity and mutual support fully in tune with the album's spirit.

Overall, "HELP(2)" holds together precisely because it doesn't try to hide its composite nature. The length weighs at times, a few episodes stay more in the background and a certain dispersiveness surfaces, but the record maintains a recognizable mood and brings together several moments that stick with you. For a compilation of this kind, that's no small feat. The value of the project is obvious, but it's not enough on its own to explain the result: there's also real musical substance here, made up of strong tracks, focused performances and a tracklist that, while not strictly cohesive, finds its own balance. The result avoids the showcase effect and leaves behind something more than the simple sum of its participants.

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02/04/2026