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 January 2026.
1. PRIVATE WIVES - THREE OF SWORDS
As Australians geared up to celebrate the new year on January 1, police warned that the most dangerous time of the year for domestic violence is midnight to 3am on New Year's Day. Five days later, Universal Music Group announced it had dropped Australian pop star Dean Lewis after women accused him of misconduct last year. On January 9, Aussie feminist punks Private Wives released their new album, which drop-kicks such behaviour. "The girls are making a statement to those who have wounded them and are proving that they won’t be teared down," said feminist music website Loud Women. "An audacious album that brings forth an important message about us all taking a more defiant and confident approach to our experiences with femininity." Days earlier, Loud Women released a hard-hitting compilation album "celebrating 10 years of putting women and non-binary artists centre stage". LISTEN>>>
2. SLUT INTENT - SLUTWORLD
On New Year's Day, Private Wives' fellow feminist punks Slut Intent released their new LP in their home town of Minneapolis. On it, they sneer: "I wonder what keeps me alive in this hellish world where these greedy fucks gouge every once of value from every poor soul trying to survive." A week later, an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer shot unarmed female protester Renee Good dead in Minneapolis, less than a mile from where a cop killed African-American George Floyd in 2020, sparking protests worldwide. Responding to Good's killing, the city's mayor told ICE to "get the fuck out of Minneapolis". The killing also sparked a wave of protest songs, from Jesse Welles and NOFX to Billy Bragg. Days later, ICE shot dead a Minneapolis nurse protesting against Good's death, leading rocker Bruce Springsteen to release an uncompromising protest song and Tom Morello to launch a benefit gig. LISTEN>>>
3. LUCINDA WILLIAMS - WORLD'S GONE WRONG
A day before that nurse was shot dead, veteran US singer-songwriter Lucinda Williams released her first protest album. It was inspired by US President Donald Trump, who continued to praise the actions of his ICE agents. Asked about how she wrote the LP, Williams said: "Every day there was some crazy thing that the president said or made a decision about, and these songs just had to come out." Williams has been hailed as "the female Bob Dylan". The accolade prompted the revered musician to invite her to speak with him when she toured with him recently. Williams said she "was kind of embarrassed" by the Dylan comparison, but Dylan told her: “Well, who else would it be?” Although World's Gone Wrong is Williams' first protest album, she said: "I was quite the little activist back in the day. As a teenager, I got kicked out of high school for not saying the pledge of allegiance, stuff like that." LISTEN>>>
4. LISA MARIE SIMMONS & MARCO CREMASCHINI - NOTESPEAK (IN A WORD)
Also taking inspiration from Trump is multi-award-winning jazz singer, poet and author Lisa Marie Simmons, who contributed to the new book America’s Slide Toward Authoritarianism. Her latest, impeccably-produced, album - made with her husband and musical partner - takes a similar tack, with multiple spoken-word screeds against the president's politics. On "Intent", she says: "Is there another way in the US of A? Built upon conscripted violence, an indulged scarlet mist unrestricted... Power hungry politicians pacifying us plebeians with platitudes invented despite war begetting war begetting war." And on the LP's outro, she intones: "Once there was, and once there wasn’t, a universal mother tongue, from West Africa to Ancient Greece, from Turtle Island to the land of red earth and gum trees, where spirits live in rock and river throughout all the murmuring earth, there was one universal connection." LISTEN>>>
5. MON ROVÎA - BLOODLINE
Trump continued to destroy any universal connections as he targeted Somali migrants with ICE raids. Meanwhile, he claimed to be seeking peace in war-torn Sudan. But critics said his moves meant "the continuation of the extraction of Sudanese resources, the grabbing of its agricultural land, and geopolitical exploitation to serve US interests". Mon Rovîa, who takes his name from the capital of his similarly war-torn African nation, Liberia, released his latest album on January 8. On "Black Cauldron", he sings: "Whittle me till I'm little me, back to banyan trees, cassava leaves, war-torn screams, Maria, birthing me in a black cauldron... One for the Bible, two for the children with the rifles, three for survival." The album came as Trump continued to fail to bring peace to Ukraine, prompting Ukranian techno artist Andrey Sirotkin to release his new LP with the song: "Eat, No Sleep, Air Raid Alarm, Repeat." LISTEN>>>
6. MEGADETH - MEGADETH
Trump's professed love of peace was already being exposed as a sham long before he claimed he'd abandoned it after supposedly being snubbed by the Nobel Peace Prize committee. Under the headline "Here Are 5 Wars Trump Started or Expanded in 2025", media outlet Reason said: "The US military is fighting or preparing to fight in more countries than it was when the self-proclaimed 'peace president' took office." On January 8, Trump demanded that the US boost annual defence spending by more than 50% to US$1.5 trillion. A fortnight later, US thrash metal legends Megadeth released their final album, which continues their laudable cynicism of US imperialism, despite singer Dave Mustaine's recent tilt towards conspiracy theories. On "Made To Kill", he snarls: "Wave the flag then torch the town, come in peace then burn it down... Fight for crude and oil fields, the mighty fall and the people kneel." LISTEN>>>
7. SLEAFORD MODS - THE DEMISE OF PLANET X
Trump openly declared that his invasion of Venezuela on January 3 was to take the country's oil. "It has been taboo for the likes of the BBC and Guardian to mention oil as a motivation for war," noted media analysts Media Lens. "With that wilful blindness made absurd by Trump’s sociopathic ‘honesty’, even the Guardian has mentioned the three-letter O-word." Presumably that would mean fewer angry missives from Sleaford Mods singer Jason Williamson, who complains on his band's new LP, released on January 16, that his comments are deleted by the Guardian's moderators. Days after Trump's Venezuela invasion, US protest singer David Rovics released an AI-generated song about it, followed by his 10th AI-generated album and an essay addressing his fans' criticism of his use of the technology. It came as Bandcamp banned AI-generated music and musicians and actors launched a campaign against it. LISTEN>>>
8. CARSIE BLANTON - THE RED ALBUM VOLUME 2
The world's richest person, Elon Musk, was condemned worldwide on January 3 when his AI chatbot, Grok, began generating naked deepfakes of women and children. Even Ashley St Clair, the mother of one of Musk's children, was outraged at becoming a victim. Images of St Clair as a child bent over in a bikini were displayed alongside those of children with their faces covered in semen. None of which deterred Trump, who immediately awarded Musk's heavily-polluting AI firm, xAI, with more US government contracts. Channelling the outrage was US indie protest musician Carsie Blanton, who was recently detained by Israeli authorities for sailing on the aid-bringing Freedom Flotilla. On "Elon Musk", which appears on her new album released on January 16, she sings: "If you’re runnin' around in a panic, and you’re wondering who you can trust, well it’s socialism or barbarism, it’s the people or Elon Musk." LISTEN>>>
9. TAMER NAFAR - IN THE NAME OF THE FATHER, THE IMAM & JOHN LENNON
Despite Musk's highly beneficial friendship with Trump, he mocked the president's newly formed "Board of Peace" on January 22. “I heard about the formation of the peace summit," Musk told an audience at the Davos Economic forum, "and I was like, is that p-i-e-c-e? You know, a little piece of Greenland, a little piece of Venezuela." Equally ridiculous is Trump's "peace plan" for Gaza, led by war criminals including Tony Blair. Palestinian rapper Tamer Nafar’s first English-language album, released on January 20, hits back with cutting-edge sounds and equally sharp lines, such as: "Are you down with it? From the tunnels of Gaza, more underground dan this." He had been sitting on the album for a while, doubtful after the October 7, 2023 attack, but "the time came for politics, generational trauma, all of it, to come together in one album. Trauma that’s Palestinian, but also completely human.” LISTEN>>>
10. THE SOCIAL SURGEONS - DRONGO CRISIS
On January 7, New South Wales' police commissioner announced a further 14-day ban on protests after a December 15 terrorist attack on Jews at Bondi Beach. The ban came after politicians, including One Nation's far-right leader, Pauline Hanson, hijacked the event to spread anti-Muslim and anti-immigrant hatred across Australia. Towards the end of January, her policies threatened to split Australia's political opposition as their influence dragged the Coalition even further to the right than its disastrous former leader, Peter Dutton. Dutton is just one of the many far-right politicians and business leaders worldwide name-checked on the opening song of the new album by Melbourne punks The Social Surgeons, released days after the Bondi attack. "Trump, fuckwit," they seethe. "Musk, fuckwit. LePen, fuckwit. Netanyahu, fuckwit. Putin, fuckwit. Zuckerberg, fuckwit. They're fucking up the world." 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 month, Mat Ward released his new AI-mocking single, Ride That Boom.]
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Read about more political albums.
Stream our new “Best protest songs of 2026” playlist. This replaces the previous “Political albums” playlist, that was getting too big at more than 700 albums.