{"id":1767210,"date":"2026-02-12T14:12:48","date_gmt":"2026-02-12T11:12:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1767210"},"modified":"2026-02-12T14:12:48","modified_gmt":"2026-02-12T11:12:48","slug":"damon-albarn-fontaines-d-c-s-grian-chatten-and-kae-tempest-join-forces-for-new-song","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1767210","title":{"rendered":"Damon Albarn, Fontaines D.C.\u2019s Grian Chatten, and Kae Tempest Join Forces for New Song"},"content":{"rendered":"

[analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/media.pitchfork.com\/photos\/698ddf06909c374373116eec\/16:9\/w_1280,c_limit\/damon-albarn-grian-chatten-kate-tempest.jpg”]<\/p>\n

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News<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Damon Albarn, Fontaines D.C.\u2019s Grian Chatten, and Kae Tempest Join Forces for New Song<\/h1>\n
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\u201cFlags,\u201d from War Child\u2019s new compilation, also features Johnny Marr, Jarvis Cocker, and more<\/div>\n
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By <\/span>Jazz Monroe<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n

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Damon Albarn, Grian Chatten, and Kae Tempest (photo by Lawrence Watson)<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/header>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Damon Albarn, Fontaines D.C.\u2019s Grian Chatten, and Kae Tempest join forces on the second single to be released from the new War Child compilation Help(2)<\/em>. Their song, \u201cFlags,\u201d features musical backup from Johnny Marr, Portishead\u2019s Adrian Utley, the Invisible\u2019s Dave Okumu, and Albarn\u2019s Gorillaz bandmates Seye Adelekan and Femi Koleoso (also of Ezra Collective). Watch a visualizer for the track\u2014directed, as with all the Help(2)<\/em> visuals, by Jonathan Glazer\u2014below.<\/p>\n

Along with the all-star cast of musicians, \u201cFlags\u201d is backed by a 43-piece choir that counts Marr, Jarvis Cocker, the Libertines\u2019 Carl Barat, Let\u2019s Eat Grandma\u2019s Rosa Walton, Declan McKenna, Marika Hackman, English Teacher, and Black Country, New Road among its number.<\/p>\n

Tempest elaborated on the composition process in a press release: \u201cMe and Grian wrote our verses, responding to each other. We all worked together on Damon\u2019s lyrics. Damon had the melody but kept the lyrics free so we could find them all together. It was a true collaboration.\u201d<\/p>\n

Albarn added, \u201cRecording \u2018Flags\u2019 was a genuinely joyful two days, with a strong sense of purpose throughout the building. I was particularly struck by the decision to employ children to do all the filming in the studio – it felt inspiring and directly reinforced the point we were trying to make about communicating with kids, by involving them in the process itself.\u201d<\/p>\n

Chatten\u2019s main band, Fontaines D.C., also contribute to the compilation, along with Big Thief, Cameron Winter, Arooj Aftab and Beck, Olivia Rodrigo, King Krule, Depeche Mode, and many more. The lead single from the record, \u201cOpening Night,\u201d marked Arctic Monkeys\u2019 return. Simian Mobile Disco\u2019s James Ford executive produced the album.<\/p>\n

Correction: A previous version of this story incorrectly noted Seye Adelekan is part of Ezra Collective. We apologize for the error.<\/em><\/p>\n

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[analyse_source url=”http:\/\/pitchfork.com\/news\/damon-albarn-fontaines-dcs-grian-chatten-and-kae-tempest-join-forces-for-new-song\/”]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/media.pitchfork.com\/photos\/698ddf06909c374373116eec\/16:9\/w_1280,c_limit\/damon-albarn-grian-chatten-kate-tempest.jpg”] News Damon Albarn, Fontaines D.C.\u2019s Grian Chatten, and Kae Tempest Join Forces for New Song \u201cFlags,\u201d from War Child\u2019s new compilation, also features Johnny Marr, Jarvis Cocker, and more By Jazz Monroe February 12, 2026 Damon Albarn, Grian Chatten, and Kae Tempest (photo by Lawrence Watson) Damon Albarn, Fontaines D.C.\u2019s Grian Chatten, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[226,54],"class_list":["post-1767210","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","tag-crawlmanager","tag-pitchfork-com"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1767210","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1767210"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1767210\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1767210"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1767210"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1767210"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}