WILDCHILD: Alex Warren named his second album after what his father called him

Alex Warren's second album is out today. It is called WILDCHILD, and the title is not a pose. It is what his late father used to call him, and he has it tattooed on him. It is also the last of the thirteen tracks, which tells you where the record is heading before you press play.

Thirteen songs, thirty-eight minutes, out on Atlantic. Four of them arrived ahead of the album: "Fever Dream", "Fine Place to Die", "Passenger" and "Rescuer". Warren has said he wanted at least a song or two for every emotion he could name, breakups, loss, being wronged, falling in love, and that making it was the closest thing he has had to therapy.

Eighteen months ago, one room smaller

We photographed Alex Warren at AFAS Live in Amsterdam on 17 March 2025, on the Cheaper Than Therapy tour. Six thousand people, which is a serious room by any measure, and at that point the biggest he had played in this city.

One thing from that night we could never explain. At some point he had the whole room singing a birthday song, and rather than let it happen to him he took charge of it, conducting six thousand Dutch people with his arms up, delighted and visibly baffled at the same time. It was not his birthday. He was born in September.

Eighteen months later we found out whose it was. Ashley saw this piece and left a comment: "this really was a core memory for me cus they sang happy birthday for me."

Then "Ordinary" spent thirteen weeks at number one in the UK, the longest run of the decade, and made him the US artist with the longest-running UK number one single in chart history. The record he broke had stood since 1955, when Slim Whitman held it with "Rose Marie". Only six songs in the entire history of the Official Chart have sat at the top for longer.

Thirteen months after that AFAS show he was back in Amsterdam, at the Ziggo Dome, on 6 and 7 April 2026. Seventeen thousand people a night, two nights, on a tour called Finding Family on the Road. That is the distance a career can travel between two visits to the same city.

Where to start

If you already know "Ordinary" and want to hear whether there is more to him than one enormous song, start at the end. "WILDCHILD" is the track the album is named after and the one carrying the reason it exists. Then go back to "Rescuer" and "Fine Place to Die" and listen to what he does with a chorus when he is not trying to break anything.

Alex Warren photographed at AFAS Live, Amsterdam, 17 March 2025.