James Ellis Ford announces new album, ‘Lost in Another World’, written during cancer treatment
James Ellis Ford has announced the upcoming release of his second studio album, Lost in Another World.
The musician and producer is famed as a member of The Last Shadow Puppets as well as working with artists including Arctic Monkeys, Blur, and Geese.
However, in January 2025, Ford announced that he was being treated for Acute Myeloid Leukaemia (AML), with him most recently sharing an update last week which said he has “no more treatment scheduled”.
Subsequently, taking to Instagram on July 6th, the musician shared that he recorded a new album at the height of when he was undergoing cancer treatment, titled Lost in Another World.
“In April last year, while I was receiving treatment for acute myeloid leukaemia in St. Bart’s hospital, I started making music on the ward in between rounds of chemo, mainly as a way to lift my spirits and process what I was going through,” Ford shared.
He added: “Within a few weeks, to my surprise, I had written and recorded an album’s worth of material which feels to me like a Polaroid of a very surreal chapter of my life.”
Alongside the announcement of the album, which is due out on August 14th, Ford has also released the first single ‘Overtones’, a synth and bass-driven reflection on identity and reckoning with the world.
Reflecting on this, as well as the wider album as a whole, the musician said, “It was a pep talk; I was telling myself I was going to be OK. It was one way of dealing with the existential dread I felt. It gave me the ammunition to fight the experience and was a distraction from it.”
The announcement of Lost in Another World has also heralded some new live dates for Ford, as he is set to play Green Man festival on August 22nd, and the Old Horse Hospital in London on September 17th.
As well as his own solo endeavours, throughout his illness, he also served as the producer for War Child’s Help(2) album released in March, featuring songs by many of Ford’s collaborators such as Arctic Monkeys, Geese, and The Last Dinner Party.
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