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 May.
1. LADY MAISERY AND JIMMY ALDRIDGE & SID GOLDSMITH - WAKEFIRE: A SUMMER ALBUM
People marched worldwide for International Workers' Day on May 1. Pointedly released the same day was the new LP from English folk musicians Lady Maisery, Jimmy Aldridge and Sid Goldsmith. Its track "May Day" samples an old newsreel about London's 1949 Trafalgar Square May Day riots, when police violently stopped marchers after protests were banned. The song takes its chorus from old socialist anthem "Which Side Are You On?" Two days after the LP's release, as politicians ramped up their racist rhetoric, artist Banksy installed a statue of a suited man, blinded by a flag he is holding, stepping off a plinth in nearby Waterloo Place. The 27-track double album starts out as a sunny celebration of English summers, but gradually boils over into heated warnings about the climate. Days later, scientists warned of climate change-induced mass starvation as Britain sweltered through record-breaking temperatures. LISTEN>>>
2. TRIALS - HENDLE
International Workers' Day marks the Haymarket Square affair in Chicago, when a general strike for labour rights led to activists being killed. Hip-hop hitmaker Trials, who started out by producing "hardcore Commie" records about "May 1st and Haymarket Squares", released his debut solo LP on May 1. On it, the Ngarrindjeri man - who shot to fame with AB Original, his act with fellow Aboriginal rapper Briggs - tells his early life story of surviving racism and abuse. Its anti-suicide song "then I got dressed" opens by warning "Australian and colonialist" listeners that it contains material about Indigenous people "alive and overachieving". Days later, billionaire Andrew "Twiggy" Forrest, who claims to help Aboriginal people overachieve, was fined just $150 million for stealing billions of dollars' worth of iron ore from Traditional Owners. Even right-wing media and politicians condemned the paltry penalty. LISTEN>>>
3. DAN THE UNDERDOG & ESKATOLOGY - BUILT ON GRIND. BACKED BY LEGACY.
Trials survived his abusive father, who went to prison. But when Aboriginal man Jefferson Lewis was released from jail, he allegedly killed a five-year-old Indigenous girl after taking her from a town camp in Mparntwe/Alice Springs. The murder was condemned by her aunt, right-wing Senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price, who made headlines on May 12 by calling for action to address "dysfunction in Indigenous communities". But left-wing Indigenous Senator Lidia Thorpe warned against "racist commentary" blaming communities "for the violent actions of one individual". On May 22, Mparntwe-based producer Dan The Underdog, who used to rap alongside Price in their band Catch The Fly, released his new album with Ngarrindjeri rapper Eskatology. The album disses Price as always having been a wannabe "celebrity" and slams racist police brutality in a "city where the surroundings are pretty but the streets are gritty". LISTEN>>>
4. RATSALAD - PEST FROM THE WEST
Over in Western Australia, small-town skate punks Ratsalad released their latest radical record on May 22. The brilliant, heavy, catchy LP - released as Australian data found the "cost-of-living crisis is drawing more people to heavy music" - demolishes the "absurdity of modern housing prices" on its track "Bike Beach Pub". "If I lived in the city then I'd needa be rich," they scream. "Cos I don't wanna live ten k’s from the beach. I'm not about rat race or fancy things. Spend my whole life in traffic? Fuckin’ pull ya head in... Cos I don't want neighbours caging me in. Need a big backyard and a big garden. Million bucks for a shoebox? Pull ya head in." It came as Australia's media slammed the Labor government for supposedly trying to reduce house prices for young people in its May 12 budget. Yet its own budget papers admitted the price of housing would continue to rise, only more slowly. LISTEN>>>
5. GENESIS OWUSU - REDSTAR WU & THE WORLDWIDE SCOURGE
On the other side of Australia, Ngunnawal land/Canberra-based rapper Genesis Owusu released his latest critically-acclaimed album on May 15. On its track "Big Dog", the Ghanaian-born Australian acknowledges the Traditional Owners of the land as he raps: "Huh, you're not a threat to me, you just need a thread of me. I be out in Ngunnawal, always was, will always be. Riding through that Gadigal, this that air you've nеver breathed." And on "The Worldwide Scourge" he spits: "How dare they pillage Gaza and still have the nerve to sleep at night?" The album came as Australian and Aboriginal activists left on the "Gadigal to Gaza Freedom Flotilla" to deliver aid to Palestinians. The flotilla hit worldwide headlines after the Israeli military illegally intercepted it. The activists were then filmed being taunted by Israeli Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, before being sexually and physically assaulted. LISTEN>>>
6. MUNA - DANCING ON THE WALL
Israel's partner in war crimes, US President Donald Trump, revealed on May 4 that his wife, Melania, "hates" him dad-dancing on stage to his favourite song, Village People's queer anthem, "YMCA". No doubt she'd have even harsher words if he busted some moves to queer band MUNA's new album, Dancing On The Wall, whose title seems made for him. Releasing it four days after Trump's "YMCA" comment, the alt-pop trio slammed Trump's "fascist autocracy" as they discussed the LP with the media. On "Big Stick", which the band have called their most overtly political song, they sing: "We give weapons to dictators in apartheid states. We give kids in Palestine PTSD. But we'll never fuckin' ever give them something to eat. And if you've got a problem with it, you could end up in jail." Before the album, they released the song as a 48-hour Bandcamp fundraising single for Gaza mutual-aid project Pal Humanity. LISTEN>>>
7. KNEECAP - FENIAN
A group who have generated countless world headlines by standing up for Palestinians, Irish rap trio Kneecap, released their new album on May 1, to ecstatic reviews. Last year, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer blasted their booking to play Glastonbury Festival as "not appropriate". At the time, they fired back: “You know what’s ‘not appropriate’ Keir? Arming a fucking genocide.” On this rollicking record's song "Liars Tale", they take on both Starmer and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu with the words: “Fuck Keir Starmer, Netanyahu’s bitch and genocide-armer, better off as compost for farmers.” And on “Palestine”, which features Palestinian rapper Fawzi calling for pan-Arabic unity, Kneecap liken the struggle for Irish independence in west Belfast with the Palestinians' plight, rapping: “From the west of the city to the West Bank, we won’t stop until everyone is free.” LISTEN>>>
8. TORI AMOS - IN TIMES OF DRAGONS
The erosion of freedoms is central to the new album by chart-topping US pianist and singer Tori Amos, also released on May 1. It was inspired in part by her daughter, a law student who co-wrote three of the album's songs. “Until she kind of laid it out for me, I didn’t understand how many things are being not held up, how many things we’re losing," said Amos. "It’s state by state, some of them. Some are federal.” On its opening track, she quotes Trump-supporting billionaire Peter Thiel with the line: "He says, 'I no longer believe that freedom and democracy are compatible. That's clear to me." Asked whether she feared touring the album in a divisive US, she replied: “I choose not to spend a lot of time thinking about it." Days later, it was reported that US rock star Bruce Springsteen had been receiving increasing death threats on his latest tour, which explicitly rebukes Trump. LISTEN>>>
9. NAVAN - KISSES ON THE MOON
On his "Land Of Hopes And Dreams" tour, Springsteen opens his shows nightly by criticising Trump's war against Iran before launching into Edwin Starr's classic song "War" with its words: "War! What is it good for? Absolutely nothing!" On May 29, Iranian Canadian musician Navan slammed the war as he released his new album, which contains a tribute to Iranian protesters on the song "Iran". When protests against the Iranian government broke out in February, his close friend witnessed his best friend get shot. "I felt the need to write a page of history through my music," Navan said. The song asserts that "we only have a few steps left". But that hope faded as the government cracked down on protesters and the US strikes began. "People were seeing images of violence without knowing whether their own families were safe,” he said of the internet blackout since the war started. LISTEN>>>
10. AJA MONET - THE COLOR OF RAIN
Since Trump's Iran war cut off oil supplies, politicians worldwide have clamoured not to increase renewable energy but to drill for more oil and gas. The consequences could be seen on May 20, as more than 17,000 people were ordered to evacuate from wildfires threatening their homes near Los Angeles. The fires recalled the blaze that razed Hollywood stars' homes a year earlier, which is documented on LA-based poet Aja Monet's sublime new album, released two days later. On its track "Hollyweird", she intones: "From Palisades to Palestine, an actress compares the LA oceanfront to Gaza, never mentions the Rafah border, the cutoff of 2000 aid trucks. Neglects to mention body bags, rubble, or the Israeli snipers aimed at children. But everyone's donating their wardrobe to people without closets... Maybe, maybe socialism is on its way... What's the insurance policy for chickens coming home to roost?" 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 My AI Chatbot Really Loves Me.]
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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.