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Alex Warren Drops 'WILDCHILD' — And Puts His Late Dad's Voice on the Final Track
The 'Ordinary' hitmaker's long-awaited sophomore album landed Friday with Nile Rodgers and John Mayer guest spots — and a closing track built around a voice memo from his late father.
Alex Warren, the TikTok-bred singer-songwriter behind 2025's biggest single, released his sophomore album WILDCHILD on Friday, August 28, through Atlantic Records — a 13-track record he says is about learning to heal rather than staying broken.
The album, detailed on its official tracklist page, runs just under 39 minutes and pulls in two outsized guest spots: disco pioneer Nile Rodgers plays guitar on opener "Emerald Eyes," while John Mayer contributes a solo guitar part to the closing title track. That final song, according to BroadwayWorld's report on the release, incorporates an actual voice memo from Warren's late father asking, "Are you having fun, Alex?" — a question that also became the title of track seven.
Where the title came from
Warren, 25, has said the album name is personal, not a marketing hook. "Growing up, my dad used to call me Wildchild so it's always had a special meaning and I even have it tattooed on me," he told Hot Press ahead of the release, also framing the record as a deliberate pivot from his debut.
"It's really healing, therapeutic," Warren said of the new album, contrasting it with his 2025 debut, which he described as the work of "a man who is broken" — WILDCHILD, he said, is "a man who's trying to heal."
The four pre-release singles — "Fever Dream," "Fine Place to Die," "Passenger" and "Rescuer" — were rolled out between February and early August, with the album recorded across sessions in Nashville and Los Angeles.
This is the follow-up nobody could ignore: Warren's debut single "Ordinary" spent 10 weeks atop the Billboard Hot 100 and a record 16 weeks at No. 1 on U.S. pop radio, going 7x platinum and becoming the top-selling song of 2025. His debut LP, You'll Be Alright, Kid, cracked the Billboard 200's top five and earned him a 2025 MTV VMA for Best New Artist — a breakout Rolling Stone chronicled in its review of that record.
Warren is currently mid-swing on his "Finding Family on the Road" arena tour, which has been expanding its route annually as demand grows; recent stops have included Dublin's 3Arena and Belfast's SSE Arena, with the tour continuing into the fall as WILDCHILD hits streaming platforms worldwide.