Do you think there’s no good protest music these days? So did I, until I started looking for it. Every month, I listen to it all, then select the best that relates to that month’s political news. Here’s the round-up for March 2025.
1. MAJELEN - STUCK WITH YOU
Police marched in Gadigal Country/Sydney's Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras parade on March 1. The move came despite renewed calls for them to be banned following multiple revelations of homophobia in the force. Independent MP Lidia Thorpe was among the First Nations people leading the march. Right-wing newspaper The Daily Mail slammed her return to the event after she halted the march in 2023 by laying down in protest in front of the police's float. The parade stressed LGBTQIA+ people's continuing struggle for equality, including protecting transgender kids and opposing book bans. A week earlier, queer US artist Baths released his new album of innovative pop, which reveals the highs and lows of such struggles. “I will die waiting, I will die governed,” he sings. Three weeks later, Australian lesbian Majelen released her debut album, which celebrates her wedding after the country's same-sex marriage ban ended. LISTEN>>>
2. MUDDY SUMMERS & THE DIRTY FIELD WHORES - ONE FOOT IN FRONT OF THE OTHER
A week after Mardi Gras, people marched for women's rights worldwide on International Women's Day. Days earlier, British band Muddy Summers & The Dirty Field Whores released their latest folk-punk protest album, which takes aim at notorious misogynist Andrew Tate. On "Tateworm" they sing: "Must be fate how Andrew Tate rhymes with hate and rhymes with rape. And aggravate and subjugate, dominate and discriminate, contaminate and degenerate, suffocate and perpetrate, jailbait and humiliate, and castrate and annihilate." The album came days after Tate was allowed back into the US when his travel ban was lifted. Hitting back at such abusers is Winona Fighter's new album of perfect pop-punk, with its song "I’M IN THE MARKET TO PLEASE NO ONE". Following that was the new LP by all-male Indian metal band Bloodywood, who slam rape culture as "something we feel very strongly about". LISTEN>>>
3. ALIEN WEAPONRY - TE RĀ
In Aoteaora/New Zealand, International Women's Day marchers expressed their solidarity with Palestinians. The move came after the United Nations confirmed that nearly 70% of those killed by Israel in Gaza are women and children. Well aware of the parallels between colonial powers such as Israel and New Zealand are the Māori. The country's Indigenous people are suffering the strongest attack in decades under NZ's new right-wing government. Taking a haka-like stand are Māori thrash metal band Alien Weaponry with their powerful new LP, released on March 28. On lead single "Mau Moko" they sing in their native tongue about the heads of Māori ancestors that were traded as trophies during the 1800s, and the social costs of maintaining cultural customs such as face tattooing today. But the band also look beyond their borders. The song "Blackened Sky" rails against the threat of World War III. LISTEN>>>
4. CHARLIE NEEDS BRACES - NYAA WA
Just beyond Aotearoa's borders on March 8, South Australia's WOMADelaide festival debuted multicultural band The Cloud Maker, who formed after Māori musician Te Kahureremoa Taumata told her fellow musos the creation story of Raukatauri, the Māori goddess of music. That gig came days after innovative Aboriginal duo Charlie Needs Braces released their new environment-themed album. Its title, "NYAA WA" means "take care" in their Guringai language. On its closing track, "Kariong Lands", they sing against the development of a Guringai meeting place: "By clearing this land, developing buildings, you're killing mob's culture and our country." It came days before loggers moved in to destroy koalas' habitat further up the coast. Meanwhile, Australian musicians launched the "No Music On A Dead Planet" campaign as the country's climate-denying federal election campaign kicked off. LISTEN>>>
5. ICONYX - BLAK ON TRAK
Over on the other side of the country, West Australian-raised Pintupi and Kukatja musician Iconyx released her debut album on March 21. Most media outlets focused on the fact that the blind, 17-year-old RnB and hip-hop prodigy had been given permission to sing the songs of the late, legendary Aboriginal musicians Archie Roach and Gurrumul. "I get to keep spreading the message that they were spreading," she told them. "And keep showing that us Blackfellas, we're still standing, we will survive." Yet it is in her own defiant protest songs that she really stands out. On "Justice", she sings: "This is dedicated to my brothers, to my sisters, fathers, mothers, they taken from us too early, they didn't make it till 30. We watching, we standing, we listening, planning, demanding. We take a stand, take back our land, one step at a time. We still out here marching, we still looking for justice." LISTEN>>>
6. LAST QUOKKA - TAKE THE FIGHT TO THE BASTARDS
Also in Western Australia, Boorloo/Perth's pugilistic punks Last Quokka released their latest album on March 14. On "Murujuga (DBH)" they blast energy company Woodside and its huge gas expansion that threatens to destroy Aboriginal rock art on the WA coastline, urging listeners to "take the fight to Woodside". The day before the album's release, an activist shareholder group asked Woodside investors to vote against the re-election of the firm's directors because of their failure to manage climate risks. That move came after a huge, climate change-induced cyclone threatened the city of Magan-djin/Brisbane on the east coast a week earlier, forcing the cancellation of music festivals and cutting short the tour of US protest music punks Green Day. As it loomed off the coast on March 7, Magan-djin political punks Tape/Off released their new album, which rails against global warming in the song "Paris, Texas, Queensland". LISTEN>>>
7. DAVID ROVICS - MAKE THE PLANET EARTH GREAT AGAIN
Just managing to dodge the cyclone were Irish republican hip-hop trio Kneecap. The band got a "record" crowd of more than 10,000 people chanting "free Palestine" at their gig in Naarm/Melbourne on March 10. They announced the complimentary concert after many fans, no doubt inspired by the hit movie about the band's origins, missed out on tickets to their paid gig that evening. As the band went on to play a St Patrick's Day festival in Gadigal Country, US protest musician David Rovics was touring Mexico, where his song "St Patrick Battalion" has made him something of a household name. The only other time he's been made to feel like such a celebrity, he said, was when he toured Palestine. Days later, he released his latest album, which opens with a pro-Palestine song. "The apocalypse will be televised," he sings. "I’m watching it on this screen, live on camera – the holocaust of Falasteen." LISTEN>>>
8. JESSE WELLES - UNDER THE POWERLINES (APRIL 24-SEPTEMBER 24)
Rovics' latest album followed the new, Gaza-themed LP by Welsh poet Patrick Jones, who is the brother of Manic Street Preachers bassist Nicky Wire. On it, Jones pulls no punches in describing what he saw when he also toured Palestine. Equally unvarnished is US anti-war musician Jesse Welles, who on March 21 followed up his "less political" album from a month earlier with a 3.5 hour-long, 63-track release of his recordings that have gone viral. Listening to it in one go is surprisingly enjoyable, but that is not Welles' intention. He wanted fans to more easily stream any one of his viral songs, but also stop thieves who have been making money off his anti-capitalist screeds by uploading his videos' audio to platforms such as Spotify. Also going viral was US singer Ron Gallo, whose new EP, released on March 1, includes his song about Trump's notorious meeting with Ukraine's leader days earlier. LISTEN>>>
9. REG MEUROSS - FIRE & DUST: A WOODY GUTHRIE STORY
Trump's trade wars could trigger an economic downturn reminiscent of the Great Depression nearly a century ago, US media reported on March 6. A week later, English folk singer Reg Meuross released his new album, which draws similar parallels. "Highlighting racism, bigotry, corruption and inequality, this incredible new song-cycle is focused on the life and times of the ‘Dust Bowl’ American folk musician and political activist Woody Guthrie - whose work remains so influential today," say its liner notes. "Drawing important parallels between Guthrie’s time and our own, each song shows Meuross at his absolute best - sharing stories from social history that are still highly relevant today." The album was funded and produced by The Who's revered guitarist Pete Townshend, who said the LP's brilliance lies in the fact it shows that "Woody was a man with faults - just like me and most men I know". LISTEN>>>
10. MARIE DAVIDSON - CITY OF CLOWNS
Trying to rectify such "faults" was electronic music pioneer Brian Eno, who launched a campaign for millionaires like himself to be taxed more on March 18. Asked about the notion that money corrupts, he said: "Well, there's a lot of evidence for that. I mean, look at the joy and abandon with which [Elon] Musk and [Jeff] Bezos and [Mark] Zuckerberg have jumped into fascism." A fortnight earlier, US electronic musician Marie Davidson released her new LP, inspired by Shoshana Zuboff’s book The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, which looks at how such tech billionaires profit by mining people's data. The billionaires' abandonment of diversity initiatives continues a long tradition of promising non-whites rights, then taking them away. That is reflected on the new blues album by Kenny Wayne Shepherd, on which Bobby Rush sings that he's still waiting for his "40 acres and a mule" promised to freed slaves in 1865. LISTEN>>>
[Mat Ward has been writing for Green Left since 2009. He also wrote the book Real Talk: Aboriginal Rappers Talk About Their Music And Country and makes political music. Mat Ward's latest single is the Andrew Tate-baiting "Small Dick Energy".]
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Read about more political albums.
Stream our new “Best protest songs of 2025” playlist on Spotify. This replaces the previous “Political albums” playlist, that was getting too big at more than 700 albums.