Olivia Rodrigo has released a music video unlike anything in her catalog, and unlike most music videos being released right now.
The clip for her cover of The Magnetic Fields’ “The Book of Love” does not feature Rodrigo at all.
Instead, it is built entirely from footage filmed by children living through conflict in Gaza, Ukraine, Sudan, and Yemen.
The footage shows kids running through rubble, playing in open fields, laughing with friends against backdrops of destroyed buildings, and capturing the sound of planes passing overhead.
Rodrigo sings softly in the background.
The video was released as part of HELP(2), a 23-track charity album put out by War Child Records on March 6, 2026, and every penny raised goes directly to War Child UK, a nonprofit that delivers immediate aid, education, specialist mental health support, and protection to children living through armed conflict around the world.
What Is HELP(2)?
HELP(2) is the sequel to one of the most significant charity albums ever made.
The original HELP was released in 1995 by War Child Records, recorded and released within 24 hours, an idea inspired by John Lennon’s philosophy that records should be like newspapers, reflecting events as they happen.
That album featured Paul McCartney, Sinéad O’Connor, Radiohead, Pulp, Blur, Massive Attack, Oasis, and more, and was made to raise money for children caught in the Bosnia conflict.
It sold over 70,000 copies on day one, reached number one on the UK compilation charts, won a specially created BRIT Award collected by Thom Yorke, was nominated for the 1996 Mercury Prize, and raised over £1.2 million for War Child UK.
Pulp won the Mercury that year with Different Class but donated the prize money to War Child.
Thirty-one years later, HELP(2) was recorded across a single week in November 2025 at Abbey Road Studios in London, produced by James Ford, the producer behind records from Arctic Monkeys, Florence and the Machine, Haim, Foals, and Depeche Mode, among many others.
Ford told Billboard that Rodrigo was exceptional in the studio: “She was such a pro and was happy to take a gung-ho approach to it. She just walked into the studio and nailed it.”
The Full Tracklist
HELP(2) runs 23 tracks. The complete lineup is:
- Arctic Monkeys – “Opening Night”
- Damon Albarn, Grian Chatten & 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”
- Olivia Rodrigo – “The Book of Love”
Additional contributors include Anna Calvi, Bat For Lashes, Dove Ellis, Ellie Rowsell, Foals, Nilüfer Yanya, Sampha, Wet Leg, and Young Fathers.
As a bonus track on the gatefold vinyl and hidden track on the double CD, Oasis contributed an exclusive live recording of “Acquiesce” taken from the final night of their record-breaking 2025 Wembley Stadium run seven sold-out shows.
How Did This Album Come Together?
The album was conceived and recorded with the same urgency as its 1995 predecessor. During the week at Abbey Road, artists regularly collaborated across sessions: a choir drawn from members of English Teacher, Pulp, and Black Country, New Road performed together on “Flags.”
Cameron Winter and cellist Amy Langley recorded “Warning” together. Rodrigo recorded “The Book of Love” with Blur guitarist Graham Coxon, who also appears on the English Teacher track “Parasite.”
Jonathan Glazer, the Academy Award-winning director of The Zone of Interest, his 2023 film about Auschwitz, served as creative director for HELP(2).
Working with Academy Films, Glazer developed a concept he called “By Children, For Children,” he gave cameras to children throughout the recording sessions at Abbey Road, allowing them to film each artist in the studio without direction or restriction.
That footage became the companion film for the album. The music video for Rodrigo’s “The Book of Love” extends that concept outward, the children behind the camera are not children watching the sessions at Abbey Road, but children living through the conflicts the album exists to address.
“The Book of Love” was written by Stephin Merritt of The Magnetic Fields and originally appeared on the band’s 1999 triple album 69 Love Songs.
It is a gentle, wry meditation on love’s mundane enormity, “The book of love is long and boring / And written very long ago / It’s full of flowers and heart-shaped boxes / And things we’re all too young to know,” and the choice to place it over footage of children in warzones gives the lyric an entirely different weight.
Rodrigo’s Broader Activism
The music video is consistent with positions Rodrigo has taken publicly over the past year.
In July 2025, she posted a statement to her Instagram Stories about the situation in Gaza:
“There are no words to describe the heartbreak I feel witnessing the devastation that is being inflicted upon innocent people. It is horrific and completely unacceptable. To give up on them is to give up on our shared humanity.”
Rodrigo has also been active on reproductive rights. During her GUTS World Tour, she launched a reproductive rights initiative in partnership with nonprofit organizations advocating for access to abortion care, donating proceeds and using her platform to direct fans toward resources.
What Is War Child?
War Child UK is a global nonprofit that has operated in conflict zones since the 1990s.
The organization delivers immediate humanitarian aid, runs education programs in areas where schools have been destroyed or are inaccessible, provides specialist mental health support for children who have experienced trauma, and advocates for the legal rights of children living under occupation or active conflict.
War Child currently operates in Afghanistan, Central African Republic, Democratic Republic of Congo, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, Mali, Niger, South Sudan, Syria, Ukraine, and Yemen, among other regions.
All proceeds from HELP(2) — purchases, streams, and physical sales — go directly to War Child UK’s operations. The album is available now on all streaming platforms and for purchase at warchild.org.uk.
What Critics Are Saying About HELP(2)
HELP(2) opened to strong reviews. Rolling Stone called it “remarkably on-message and cohesive” and a worthy successor to the 1995 original.
The Scotsman described the lineup as “superb.” DIY said it had “something here for everyone.”
Stereogum noted that the album’s release just days after the beginning of the 2026 Iran war made the songs “hit a little harder than they did before.” Hot Press called it a “collaborative album on steroids.”
Arctic Monkeys’ contribution “Opening Night,” their first new song since 2022, was released as the lead single on January 22, alongside the album announcement, and generated significant attention on its own terms.
The Pulp single “Begging for Change” and Damon Albarn’s “Flags,” featuring Grian Chatten of Fontaines D.C. and poet Kae Tempest, were also released as advance singles.
HELP(2) is out now on War Child Records.
