Editor’s note: whynow has chosen not to assign a star rating to HELP(2). As a charity project supporting War Child’s work with children affected by conflict, we feel that a conventional rating would be inappropriate and beside the point.
Thirty years after the original HELP album successfully brought together some of the biggest names in Britpop, this sequel arrives with the same basic idea but on a much bigger scale.
HELP(2) gathers more than twenty artists from across indie, pop, and alternative music, most of them recording during a week of sessions at Abbey Road in November 2025. All proceeds go to War Child, which supports children living through conflict around the world.
Given the size of the lineup, the album holds together surprisingly well. Executive producer James Ford keeps the sound fairly consistent, even as the songs move between different styles. Some of the tracks lean more towards quiet indie ballads, whereas others veer off through electronic sounds or guitar-driven rock. However, the overall feeling is that everyone’s involved in the same effort.
Arctic Monkeys open the record with ‘Opening Night’, their first new song in several years. It unfolds slowly, with Alex Turner delivering the kind of relaxed vocal performance that has become his trademark in recent years. It isn’t a dramatic reinvention of Monkeys’ sound, but it works well as an introduction to the project.
Several of the album’s most interesting moments come from collaborations that might not normally happen, which is always exciting to see. Damon Albarn, Grian Chatten, and Kae Tempest share space on ‘Flags’, a moody piece that mixes spoken word with a drifting instrumental backdrop. Arooj Aftab and Beck then submit a lovely warm and hazy rendition of ‘Lilac Wine’, while Olivia Rodrigo tackles The Magnetic Fields’ ‘The Book of Love’ with a gentle, stripped-back arrangement that lets the song speak for itself.
With more than twenty tracks, the album is, inevitably, uneven. Some songs dispatch a stronger impression than others, whilst others drift by without demanding much attention. Even so, the quieter contributions rarely feel like filler. Instead, they add to the sense that this is a large group of musicians contributing what they can, sometimes from different parts of the world if they weren’t together at Abbey Road Studios, without the benefit of a conductor who neatly sews it all together.
In that sense, HELP(2) works best when you listen to it as a whole rather than picking it apart track by track. The original 1995 album managed to capture a moment in British music when rival bands set aside competition for a shared, noble cause. This new version reflects a very different, and more diverse, musical landscape, but the spirit behind it still feels familiar.
It might not be a tightly curated album in the usual sense, but that’s the point, it’s more a gathering together of artists than a traditional release, and it’s that collective effort that gives the record its weight.
Photo credit: Charlie Barclay-Harris
