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 August 2024.
1. DAVID ROVICS - I HEARD A RUMOR
Israel's war on Gaza was casting "a shadow over the Olympics" in Paris as people protested against Israel's participation in the Games, Politico reported on August 1. "The Palestinian National Olympic Committee said about 400 athletes have been killed in Israeli strikes since October 7," it said. "Among those are karate champion Nagham Abu Samra, who was preparing to compete." The same day, veteran US protest musician David Rovics released his new album, which reminded listeners that the slaughter had been going on for decades. "Since long before October, pundits try to keep the score, and maintain the upper hand in the propaganda war," he sings on "Since Long Before October". "They talk of ancient history, propagating lies, while encircled by the soldiers, the starving die. Two million people without shelter, without food or water, being killed by a regime that bills us for the slaughter." LISTEN>>>
2. CIME - THE CIME INTERDISCIPLINARY MUSIC ENSEMBLE
Olympic Algerian boxer Imane Khelif had named author JK Rowling and billionaire Elon Musk in a cyberbullying lawsuit, Variety reported on August 13. They had joined countless others worldwide accusing Khelif, who was born female and always identified as female, of being a trans man after her win against Italian boxer Angela Carini on August 1. The next day, US trans artist Cime released their adventurous new jazz-rock album, which is as lithe as an Olympic athlete and opens with the song "A Tranny's Appeal to Heaven". Days later, white Australian professor Rachael "Raygun" Gunn went viral on social media for her unique, comical Olympic breakdancing routine, which scored zero. Amid the same kind of ugly cyberbullying that Khelif had endured, valid points were made about white privilege, cultural appropriation and the fact many Aboriginal kids from disadvantaged communities could have scored better. LISTEN>>>
3. 3% - KILL THE DEAD
Articulating that disadvantage in style was the acclaimed debut album from Aboriginal rap group 3%, released on August 9. The name of the group, who have performed in many prisons, comes from the fact Indigenous people make up only 3% of Australia's population, but 35% of the country's prison population. In the week preceding its release, three more First Nations people died in custody. That fact alone made a mockery of Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese telling the Indigenous Garma Festival on August 3 that his Labor Party was “more determined than ever” to close the gap of disadvantage between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people. On the album's closer "Our People", Nooky raps: "I see my people always locked up, locked up, locked up, locked up. I'm here with all of my people, locked up with all of my people. So let me hear you scream if you're with me. Free all my people." LISTEN>>>
4. ZIGGY RAMO - HUMAN?
The 3% album followed the beautifully produced new LP - and book - from their fellow Indigenous emcee Ziggy Ramo. The album opens with a remake of "From Little Things Big Things Grow", the timeless, celebrated protest song for Aboriginal rights written by white pop star Paul Kelly and Indigenous musician Kev Carmody. Interspersed with new vocals from Kelly, Ramo raps: "On that paper, the Pope did write that you're only human if you've been saved by Christ, and if there are no Christians in sight, the land you stumble on becomes your God-given right. Is that your law? 'Cause that's invasion. That's the destruction of 500 nations. The genocide of entire populations, which planted the seeds for the stolen generation, and grew into my people's mass incarceration. Now we pass trauma through many generations. The Lord can't discover what already existed. For 200 years, my people have resisted." LISTEN>>>
5. LUKE O'SHEA - DIFFERENT DRUM
Multi-award-winning country musician Luke O'Shea kicks off his flawless new album with an acknowledgement of that colonial destruction of country. On its opener, "Dharawal", he sings: "Do you ever get to thinking that something good was lost? No matter what we buy or sell, it'll never be enough? Do you ever get to thinking if we could reconnect, and if everyone upon this land could treat it with respect? Do you ever get the feeling that something good was lost, and that no matter what we buy and sell, our children pay the cost?" And on "Hey Jumbulla (The Ghost Of Mickey Brennan)", the musician, who has been arrested for protesting against Whitehaven Coal, sings of Australia's biggest coal mining disaster: "Don't you put your trust in corporate greed." The LP was released on streaming services on August 9, a fortnight before Whitehaven sealed a multibillion-dollar coal deal with Japanese steelmakers. LISTEN>>>
6. FANNING DEMPSEY NATIONAL PARK - THE DELUGE
O'Shea's fellow storied Australians, Powderfinger frontperson Bernard Fanning and Something For Kate singer Paul Dempsey, teamed up to release their own album of environmental doom on August 2. Fittingly titled The Deluge, it arrived days before floods hit 5.2 million people in Bangladesh, killing 18 and leaving 307,000 in shelters. “'The Deluge' is the name of the first song,” said Dempsey. “But it works as the umbrella title of the whole record because it brings up not only themes of information overload but also climate change and … I mean, everything feels like too much at the moment. The whole world feels like too much.” Fanning added: “We didn’t direct any of that. It’s just that we’re both inherently political in our thinking so it’s bound to come out. I guess there are echoes of that [early 1980s] era now. That sense something big’s coming, you know? The same as it was in the '80s [and] ’30s." LISTEN>>>
7. KING GIZZARD & THE LIZARD WIZARD - FLIGHT B741
A week later, their fellow Aussies King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard released their latest LP, "a cheerfully rocking album about global collapse", which also addresses the climate. On "Antarctica", they sing: "Take me away, where the temperature stays below 25/78. I felt so at home down here, had to step out of the heat. Antarctica, that's the place, synthetic breeze on my face. I'm a polar bear in denial, I can't help but hate the heat. It's gonna be a miss, I can tell, wе've got snowball's chance in hell... It's just the tip of the iceberg so put it on ice... You gotta put it on ice in our discontented winter." Four days before the album's release, The Conversation reported that Antarctic heat was bringing wild winter weather to Australia. Two weeks after the album's release, the country's hottest ever winter daytime temperature of 39.4C was recorded at Oodnadatta in South Australia. LISTEN>>>
8. MIKE AND THE MOLOTOVS - MONARCHY IN THE USA
None of that deterred Elon Musk from holding what climate scientists called "the dumbest climate conversation of all time" with US presidential hopeful Donald Trump on August 12. Trump said rising sea levels would create “more oceanfront property”. Musk, who had previously called global warming “the biggest threat that humanity faces this century, except for AI”, told Trump the only reason to quit fossil fuels is that their supply is finite. The love-in was part of Trump's presidential campaign in which he has assured Americans that if they elect him, they "won’t have to vote any more", despite voting in the US not being compulsory. A week earlier, unique US country-punks Mike And The Molotovs released their fittingly-titled new EP, Monarchy In The USA. The song titles say it all, from "I'd Rather Die than Be Rich" to "Billionaires, Have Feelings Too" and "Dig, Capitalism's Grave". LISTEN>>>
9. MILLIE MANDERS AND THE SHUTUP - WAKE UP, SHUT UP, WORK
Trump's rival, Kamala Harris, wasn't offering much more hope. She skipped over climate at the Democratic National Convention on August 22, but reassured attendees: “As commander-in-chief, I will ensure America always has the strongest, most lethal fighting force in the world.” The crowd erupted into cheers and chants of “USA! USA!” Women then helped boost her donations to a record $US540 million, which was hardly surprising considering Trump has boasted about molesting women and been found liable by a jury for sexual abuse. On the same day in Australia, it was reported that staff for the Swillhouse hospitality chain were "sexually abused and they will tell you it’s your fault because you were drinking". Days earlier, British punks Millie Manders and The Shutup released their new LP, on which they seethe about rape: "It doesn’t matter how we speak. The conversation is the same. You blame the girl for being weak." LISTEN>>>
10. VARIOUS ARTISTS - LOUD WOMEN VOL. 6
Millie Manders and The Shutup are one of the many feminist acts tirelessly championed by British festival organisers Loud Women, who released their latest compilation album on August 2. Among its gems are Yacko's "Hands Off", on which the rapper spits: "Shout out to all my girls who fight street and sexual harassment. We girls wanna have fun as much as you do... Crowdsurfing, stage diving, moshing what we like to do. Support my weight and pass me above your head and I say thank you. But if you touch my body parts, then what I say is fuck you. Hands off. Keep your hands off me. I said hands off. Keep your hands off me... I never deserve to be raped because of how much skin you see." The album came as Australia's former defence minister, Linda Reynolds, was criticised for suing her former staffer Brittany Higgins, after she was raped by her colleague, Bruce Lehrmann, in Reynolds' office. 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. This year, Mat Ward released his new album, Take The Rad Pill.]
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Read about more political albums.
Stream our new “Best protest songs of 2024” playlist on Spotify. This replaces the previous “Political albums” playlist, that was getting too big at more than 700 albums.