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 July.
1. MARGO PRICE - DAYS OF UNREST
To mark the USA's 250th birthday on July 4, President Donald Trump held an event featuring himself as the main attraction. His move came after the pop stars booked to perform boycotted it. A day earlier, viral country music phenomenon Bryan Andrews released his fittingly titled LP Independence Day, which mocks Trump and his followers. The same day, Andrews' fellow radical country star Margo Price released her new LP of protest songs. On "Oval Room", which was instantly named one of Rolling Stone's 25 best anti-Trump songs, she sings: "He's a businessman, he got business ties, he got dollar signs in both his eyes... He's a real cowboy with his makeup on, talks to kings and queens on the telephone." The album followed the new country EP from American Aquarium, which blasts division with the words: “It ain’t left versus right, it’s bottom versus top. Until we figure it out, this ain’t gonna stop.” LISTEN>>>
2. THE ROLLING STONES - FOREIGN TONGUES
Trump's divisive deportation campaign led to a third person dying in just one week on July 15. A man running from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents in Florida was struck and killed by a tractor-trailor. The same day, US folk singer Kevin Caldwell released the latest album in his "Soulcialism" series, which posits that ICE agents are as much a victim of the system as the targets they pursue. Five days earlier, legendary rockers The Rolling Stones released their new LP, which takes a stronger stance. “When they try to arrest you, I’ll come to your rescue,” sings Mick Jagger, and "Lady Liberty don't look so good when she's wearing a scowl". Discussing the album, which also skewers Trump ally Elon Musk, Jagger praised pop megastar Olivia Rodrigo. Since Trump officials used one of her songs in a deportation ad, the Filipino American musician has turned her fans' outrage into a campaign to vote. LISTEN>>>
3. DAVID ROVICS - SONG FOR TOMORROW
Trump ramped up his illegal war against Iran on July 10, bombing civilian infrastructure in strikes that even the US business media admitted "could potentially be war crimes". As he fought to seize control of oil-shipping waterway the Strait of Hormuz, US weapons ran low, forcing him to abandon a threatened "massive" attack. Amid the carnage, US protest singer David Rovics released his latest album to streaming services on July 15. On its opening track, "All the Writing on the Wall is in Farsi", he sings: "Just because you have power, doesn't mean you understand the implications of what you do. It doesn't mean you call the shots, or have control at all. You might have felt invincible, seven feet tall. But as you surely ascertained, who controls the strait is the one who will manifest the planet’s fate. And with all of the assembled military might, the biggest force on Earth lost the fight." LISTEN>>>
4. HAWXX - THE WORLD SPLITS OPEN
New British Prime Minister Andy Burnham approved the use of his country's bases for US strikes on Iran just hours after he took power on July 21. Burnham had been hailed as a progressive alternative to his ousted predecessor, Keir Starmer. Days earlier, queer punk metallers Hawxx released their new LP, which slams Starmer for outlawing activist group Palestine Action, leading to the jailing of their friend. On its opening track, "Resistance Is Justified", they seethe: "3, 2, 1 everybody's doing time. Protest denied, resistance justified." In Australia, the media continued to demonise pro-Palestine activists. On July 10, The Sydney Morning Herald reported that the New South Wales government had lost its costly case to ban pro-Palestine protests in a ruling legal experts called "completely predictable". Yet it headlined the article: "How much taxpayers have been slugged to pay protester’s legal bills." LISTEN>>>
5. THE KING BLUES - A MONKEY COULD DO THAT
Racist Australian politician Pauline Hanson, who was recently told to remove a scarf featuring the Israeli flag in federal parliament, met with far-right activist and criminal Tommy Robinson for a podcast in Britain on July 9. She had intended to interview far-right Reform UK leader Nigel Farage, who has condemned Robinson as too extreme, but that meeting was cancelled. Days later, London punk diehards The King Blues released their first LP in seven years, which mocks Farage and his appearance on Australian-based reality show I'm A Celebrity. "For a million quid, I'd rim a sumo team and their entire entourage," they sneer. "But even in a bush tucker trial I couldn't give a massage to Nigel Farage." The LP came as rapper Mr C geared up to release a remake of "Ebeneezer Goode", his No.1 hit with The Shamen, to raise funds for Farage's political challenger, activist-comedian Count Binface. LISTEN>>>
6. DOBBY - MARSHMALLOW
By July 15, polls were indicating a sharp fall in Hanson's popularity. Her decline came after comedian Paul Hogan slammed her for saying the white, blond Crocodile Dundee star had the "essential features of Australian monoculture". "Outrageous, so racist," said Hogan. “How can it be a monoculture? We’re all migrants, except the Aboriginals, who as far as we know have been [in Australia] for 60,000 years.” Days later, Filipino-Murrawarri rapper Dobby released his new album, on which he raps: "You’d think we’d rather be celebrating the multicultural place we in. But even the current day we in, we border up immigration. Not to mention you’re immigrants, the irony of the state we in. Kickin' off the debate again, tryna redefine the Australian." The album - a jazz-infused, widescreen, cinematic soundtrack to his life - somehow manages to go one better than his previous, ARIA-award winning, LP. LISTEN>>>
7. COOEE - MESSENGERS
Gunai woman Kirli Saunders praised Dobby as a "powerful artist" as her band, Cooee, followed him on stage at a National Aborigines and Islanders Day Observance Committee concert in Burramatta/Parramatta on July 11. Cooee were there to perform their sublime, mesmerising debut album, which showcases Saunders' poetry, culture and feminism. The gig came in NAIDOC week, during which Naarm/Melbourne's SYN Media showcased the new album from Mparntwe/Alice Springs teen rap prodigies Alice Kings, and the National Indigenous Music Awards nominated Blak, by Magan-djin/Brisbane rapper Say True God?, for Album Of The Year. The nomination came as researchers found microplastics in balcony dust across his city, and an Indigenous company explored a new way to fight microplastics and PFAS forever chemicals. It's an issue addressed in Cooee's album title track, which slams the "microplastic deep within". LISTEN>>>
8. STEEL CITY SUE - THE RED ZONE
PFAS also feature in the title track of the meticulous new album from Muloobinba/Newcastle folk musician Steel City Sue, released on July 10. On "The Red Zone" she documents how property values have plunged in her PFAS-contaminated community of Williamtown, where Aboriginal people can no longer hunt for bush tucker, due to the pollution. "They said 'don't drink the water or eat the eggs', but in the same breath, 'it's just in your head'," she sings about the authorities. "I'm living in the red zone. Our land is covered in that stuff. I'm living in the red zone, can't sell up." The long-time organiser for anti-coal protest movement Rising Tide also addresses the campaign for a just transition for coal workers throughout the LP, and slams the effects of fossil fuels' continued use. On "Good House", she reminds listeners: "That's the thing about climate change, nowhere's safe, nowhere's safe." LISTEN>>>
9. JOBI RICCIO - FACE THE FEELING
That's a lesson that seemed to be lost on Trump as wildfire smoke threatened to envelop the soccer World Cup final in New York on July 19. Despite the haze coming from blazes in the US as well as Canada, the pro-fossil fuel president blamed the Canadians, threatening their country with tariffs unless they somehow cleared the air. In Canada's Alberta, where a Trump-loving premier was pushing her pro-oil agenda, Indigenous musician Mercedes Brown released her debut EP, aptly titled Light The Fire. That followed eco-conscious jazz EP The Capitalocene from Canada's The Wes Carroll Confabulation. In the US on July 20, feminist indie musician Jobi Riccio was asked about the song "Wildfire Season" on her new album. "It’s too hot every year for most people," she said. "People are feeling the change in the air." It was certainly being felt by World Cup finalists Spain, as fires in their country killed 12 people. LISTEN>>>
10. DANI CORNEJO - CHILD OF EXILE
Facing Spain in the World Cup final were Argentina, some of whose players unfurled a banner claiming back the Malvinas - also known as Britain's colonised Falkland Islands - when they beat England in the semi-finals on July 15. Yet Argentina's success divided many on the left, as some cited the team's visits to Israel while others pointed out captain Lionel Messi had visited Palestine. On July 17, Chilean-American rapper Dani Cornejo was asked about the controversy while being interviewed about his new album, which explores his Indigenous roots. "When you're talking about anti-Blackness in places like Chile, Argentina, it's coming from a context of straight up erasure," he said. "Argentina also has the legacy of housing Nazis... When you just look at the team phenotypically they have a lot more white Latino players." Others slammed the anti-Argentine sentiment. In any event, Spain won the cup. 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 latest album, Dissident Ditties.]
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Stream our new “Best protest songs of 2026” playlist on the evil green platform, Spotify or transfer it to a streaming service of your choice. This replaces the previous “Political albums” playlist, that was getting too big at more than 700 albums.