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 February 2025.
1. R0RY - RESTORATION
Argentinians staged a million-person march against the transphobia of their president on February 1. A week later, Australians protested against a ban on critical healthcare for trans people under the age of 18. The moves came days after the debut album by British alt-metal musician R0RY, whose previous singles have amassed more than half a billion streams. In the artwork and video for the album's single "MORALITY $UICIDE", R0RY sports clothing emblazoned with "TRANS RIGHTS" and "FREE PALESTINE". On it, she sings: "I think maybe there's a problem on this planet. When did war become our universal language? They drop bombs and turn a hospital to ashes. That's collateral damage. There's people starving, children dying in this madness, and politicians funding wars with people's taxes." Days later, US punk Sunny War released her new LP, which also points out that people's taxes pay for genocide. LISTEN>>>
2. HOUR OF REPRISAL - ENDLESS WAR, ENDLESS PEACE
As Australian taxpayers continued to protest against the export of arms to Israel, Islamophobic and antisemitic attacks proliferated across Australia. The new LP by British hardcore punks Hour Of Reprisal, released on February 21, reminded listeners that when countries export war, it returns home. On its opener "Surgical Strike", they blast: "Reflecting on our nations' complicity, endless war for an endless peace. Never learn the lesson of history: War exported always comes home. The weapons that they test on mass civilian death. Occupier / oppressor brought back to us. Systems of oppression (from the killing fields) become tools of repression (new killing fields). Root and branch destruction of a family tree. How many innocent lives have been martyred by machines? How many children paid the cost? 'This war will set you free.' When the war comes home will we know that we’re marked for death?" LISTEN>>>
3. CONFESS - DESTINATION ADDICTION
Despite an official ceasefire, Israel continued killing Palestinians at the start of February, sparking protests across Australia and the world. A week later, South Africa's Playing For Justice released their new LP, featuring the song "Ceasefire Of Lies". "They say there’s peace, but the bombs still fall," it asserts. "Not in the open, but behind the wall. The world looks away, turns a deafened ear, while a people’s cry rings sharp and clear. Gaza burns, and the ashes rise, a ceasefire built on a web of lies." Two days after its release, Israel shifted operations to a "potential ‘new front’ for Iran". That move followed the new LP from Iranian metal band Confess, who fled Iran after being jailed for their music. "This album isn't just music," they said. "It’s a statement on the chaotic world we live in, from the Women, Life, Freedom movement in Iran to the wars raging in the Middle East and Europe." LISTEN>>>
4. JESSE WELLES - MIDDLE
That chaos continued on February 5, when US President Donald Trump announced an illegal plan to clear all the Palestinians out of Gaza before redeveloping it as prime real estate, owned by the US. US folk musician Jesse Welles, whose song mocking the beginnings of that plan went viral last year, released his new album a fortnight later. Welles has become famous for "singing the news", as he puts it, racking up millions of views and streams. But his new LP deliberately avoids being too topical. It is, however, still packed with politics. Its Gaza-referencing song "War Is A God" alludes to the absurdity of wars fought over religion when all faiths are so similar. "Maybe man don't make the war," he sings. "Maybe war is just a God. And every bullet, every bombshell, meditations thrown aloft. Bloodshed and starvation, bloodshed and pain. We all got the same damn God, we just call it different names." LISTEN>>>
5. THE WEATHER STATION - HUMANHOOD
Critics of Trump's illegal plan to redevelop Gaza pointed out that such an operation would also take decades and billions of dollars. That suggested the damage was as irreversible as Trump's infamous climate-wrecking policies. A fortnight after his announcement, Toronto experimental folk outfit The Weather Station released their new album, which features the climate-themed song "Irreversible Damage". The band's singer-songwriter, Tamara Lindeman, said the album is also about the rise of disinformation, rampant political division, gridlock on climate action and artificial intelligence’s threats against creative labour, as well as destabilisation of a personal nature. “A relationship can be a little personal fascism,” she said. “It doesn’t really feel very different to living in a world where there’s absolutely no concern being given to the biggest planetary crisis.” LISTEN>>>
6. BONNIE 'PRINCE' BILLY - THE PURPLE BIRD
US punks Squid also skewer that climate apathy on their new LP, which focuses on the banal evil of human nature. “The future’s perfect," they sing on its closing track, "from the back seat.” Taking a similar tack is the new album from revered experimental musician Bonnie "Prince" Billy. On "Downstream", he sings: "What's in the water? What's in the wind? The weather is wilder than it's ever been. The ocean's still blue, but it ain't what it seems. It's time to remember that we all live downstream." Dublin indie rocker Bren Berry also address the urgency of the situation on his debut album, "a collection of love letters and protest songs" released days earlier. On its activist-praising "environmentalist anthem", titled “Knives (Heavy Metal Rain)”, he sings: "You don’t bring knives to a gunfight, a final shot to save your life." LISTEN>>>
7. ROSA BORDALLO - ISIDRO
Rather than fighting to save the planet, Australia's red-baiting media were more concerned with combating China on February 19 when they announced: "Chinese warships spotted 150 nautical miles from Sydney." Ironically, it took a right-wing politician to point out the West has been surrounding China in such ways for decades. “We can’t be talking about freedom of navigation in the South China Sea and then jump up and down over something like this,” said Liberal MP Andrew Wallace. The news came days after the release of the new LP by Rosa Bordello, an Indigenous musician from the Pacific island nation of Guam, which is claimed as a US territory despite being far closer to China. On its track "Home" she blasts the US militarisation of her country, singing: "They tell us the biggest lie, that they’re here to protect. But all they’ve ever done for us: Wreak havoc and desecrate our dead." LISTEN>>>
8. SAM FENDER - PEOPLE WATCHING
Such shifts in global power are addressed on "Crumbling Empire", a song on the new album by English pop star Sam Fender, released on February 21. Fender, who owes much of his stadium-sized success to the fact he sounds remarkably like US rocker Bruce Springsteen, sings: "My old man worked on the rail yard, getting his trade on the electrical board. It got privatised, the work degraded, in this crumbling empire. My mother delivered most the kids in this town. my step-dad drove in a tank for the crown. They left them homeless, down and out, in their crumbling empire." Taking a chainsaw to America's crumbling empire was Trump's "first buddy", Elon Musk. The world's richest person literally wielded a gold-plated chainsaw on stage - gifted to him by Argentina's transphobic president, Javier Milei - on February 20 as he touted more cuts to government jobs by his Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). LISTEN>>>
9. MANIC STREET PREACHERS - CRITICAL THINKING
The acronym DOGE is a reference to Musk's favourite cryptocurrency, Dogecoin. As Milei handed him the chainsaw, he was facing his own crisis at home after promoting a similarly shonky coin. When Argentines began to panic it was some sort of scam, the coin crashed, with 86% of investors losing money. Milei is just one of the far-right wingers Musk has been courting, along with the likes of jailed British Islamophobe Tommy Robinson. Taking aim at another admirer of Robinson, former Smiths singer-turned right-wing crooner Steven Morrissey, were Welsh rockers The Manic Street Preachers on their new album, released on February 14. On the possibly deliberately misspelled "Dear Stephen", bassist Nicky Wire addresses his former idol with the words: "Dear Stephen, please come back to us. I believe in repentance and forgiveness. It's so easy to hate, it takes guts to be kind, to paraphrase one of your heartbreak lines." LISTEN>>>
10. BE N!CE - WHERE AM I?
As Musk wielded his chainsaw on stage, his former partner, leftist musician Grimes, was publicly pleading with the "deadbeat dad" to stop ignoring her about getting help for their sick child. It was a reminder that - far from being the great father he pretends to be as he takes his son, X, everywhere - Musk is an errant partner and absent father to many of his children. He has also been accused of exposing himself to an air hostess and is working for a president who has been found to be a sexual abuser. Taking aim at such men is the new album from London feminist punks Be N!ce, released days earlier. On "One Bad Apple", they seethe: "Bet you’re feeling cool huh? Everything’s about you huh? Your fun always meant more than what you put her through huh? She should’ve fucking killed you. I’m sure that she could’ve. I’m sure you fucking knew. Made sure she couldn’t stop you. Get the fuck off me." 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 "In Our Blood".]
Want to get this column every month? Just email matwardmusic@gmail.com and I’ll add you to my monthly email that includes a link to this column here at Green Left. Yes, I want to read this column every month.
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.