Producer James Ellis Ford made his new album Lost in Another World in hospital

Producer James Ellis Ford recorded his new solo album, Lost in Another World, at London's St Bartholomew's Hospital during roughly nine months of chemotherapy for acute myeloid leukemia, The Quietus and Pitchfork both reported on August 13, with The Quietus naming it album of the week and Pitchfork's review written by Alastair Shuttleworth. Ford fell ill on Christmas Eve 2024 and was given less than a 30% chance of survival; both outlets report he is now out of the woods and back to working with other artists.

Ford is best known as a producer, having worked with Arctic Monkeys, Depeche Mode, Beth Gibbons and The Last Dinner Party, and he previously played in the noughties psych-pop group Simian before forming Simian Mobile Disco and later joining the Last Shadow Puppets. The songs were largely written and sung softly into a laptop mic at his hospital bedside, to avoid disturbing other patients, and Pitchfork calls the result achingly poignant while never veering into self-pity.

Along the way, The Quietus reports, Ford picked up a run of secondary illnesses including sepsis, E. coli and MRSA, and his wife later brought him a PC to help pass the crushing boredom of the ward. Pitchfork traces a loose arc across the record's three lyrical modes, pep talks to himself on "Silver Lining," philosophical reflection on "I Believe in You," and direct addresses to his wife and son, singing to his son on "Here Today," "I'll never again take these moments for granted."

The Quietus places Lost in Another World alongside a short list of albums made in hospital, including J Dilla's Donuts and Warren Zevon's The Wind, and notes that chronic illness itself is rarely documented this directly in pop music, where death is more commonly romanticized than its lead-up. Reviewer Jeremy Allen, himself a cancer survivor, wrote that the record broadly follows the five stages of grief, opening in confusion and dislocation before closing with songs that face the prospect of death head on.

Lost in Another World follows Ford's 2023 debut solo album, The Hum, and is out now via Domino. It sits within rock and indie, and in the release calendar. MusicSuey previously covered Ford sharing The Ever After from the album, and a documentary tracking the record's making.