The War Child organization has released more details and the first single from its upcoming charity album, Help(2). Arctic Monkeys released their first new song in four years, contributing “Opening Night” to the album. With this follow-up to Help from 1995, War Child’s first charity album, the organization is bringing in a selection of iconic and emerging talent.
Producer James Ford, who has worked with Florence + The Machine, Fontaines D.C., and is a longtime collaborator of Arctic Monkeys, is at the helm of Help(2). Meanwhile, U.K. indie rockers Foals have shared details of their upcoming track.
Frontman Yannis Philippakis took to Instagram to drop a teaser of the song “When the War is Finally Done”. He also shared the inspiration and influences, noting that it was shelved after initially being written in 2019.
During that time, Philippakis said, he was “reading a lot of ‘The Trench Poets,’ especially Wilfred Owen and Rupert Brooke.” These poet-soldiers were prominent in World War I. They documented the horrors of trench warfare to counter the romanticized view of the conflict back home. Other notable poets include Siegfried Sassoon, Robert Graves, and Isaac Rosenberg. Additionally, artist John Singer Sargent also worked to capture the war’s reality.
Foals Frontman Reveals Inspiration for War Child Charity Single Came From WWI Poets
“The song is sung from the afterlife; a young soldier sent to war and expected to endure the unendurable,” Philippakis continued. “Watching the world return to normalcy from above after the shelling stops. A train runs tentatively, an appointment kept, a day spent alive by others. What was the cost?”
While the song was penned several years ago, Foals and Philippakis didn’t immediately do anything with it. However, he said, now it feels like the song has a place on the War Child record.
“Through the lens of current world events, it feels as if the song has been in waiting for this moment to be released,” he added.
Help(2) is available for pre-order and will drop on March 6, 2026. The album boasts an impressive selection of artists, and the full tracklist has also been revealed. Along with Arctic Monkeys’ “Opening Night”, the album features Black Country, New Road’s “Strangers”, The Last Dinner Party’s “Let’s do it again!”, Beth Gibbons’ “Sunday Morning”, and Depeche Mode’s “Universal Soldier”.
Meanwhile, several artists collaborated on their tracks. Daman Albarn, Grian Chatten, and Kae Tempest collaborated on “Flags”, while Arooj Aftab and Beck came together for “Lilac Wine”, and English Teacher and Graham Coxon collaborated on “Parasite”.
Photo by Pablo Gallardo/Redferns
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