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 June 2025.
01. STEREOLAB - INSTANT HOLOGRAMS ON METAL FILM
At the start of June, climate activist Greta Thunberg set sail for Gaza with a boat full of protesters taking aid to starving Palestinians. Award-winning media analysts Media Lens detailed how the press uniformly smeared Thunberg as a "narcissist" for her actions. As writer Ricky Hale put it on X: "Amazing that we live in a time when starving people are being lured into the open to be gunned down by Israel and the media thinks the villain of the story is a tiny autistic woman who tried to feed them." Her protest came days after Anglo-French band Stereolab released their new LP, which couches apt lyrics in ear-pleasing melodies. "The war economy is inviolable violently," they sing. "Suppresses all intelligence that conflicts with the stakes of those who drive it." Days later, Israel struck Iran in an illegal and unprovoked attack. The US joined in the bombing, egged on by a cheerleading media. LISTEN>>>
02. RON POPE - THINGS JESUS DIDN'T SAY
Many Jewish people are, of course, opposed to Israel's genocide, including Tune-Yards singer Merrill Garbus. Her indie band's new LP features “Heartbreak”, a song about her agony amid the war in Gaza. “I felt and feel and am working through a lot of shame around being Jewish," she told the media on June 16. Country musician Ron Pope, who has clocked up billions of streams, also addresses the disconnect between a religion and the actions of its followers on his new EP, released on June 20. "Jesus said don't help the poor," he sings, "unless they've filed the proper forms and weren't born in El Salvador, then traveled a long way. Blessed is the war machine. The merciless, the persecution. Poor man don't deserve a thing for which he can not pay. Wait, those are things Jesus didn't say." The record came as US President Donald Trump deployed the army against pro-immigrant protesters in Los Angeles. LISTEN>>>
03. NEIL YOUNG - TALKIN TO THE TREES
Trump followed that with a military parade for his birthday on June 14. It was met by huge "No Kings" protests and ridiculed worldwide. The parade featured the repeated playing of “Fortunate Son”, Creedence Clearwater Revival's song about wealthy Vietnam War draft dodgers. That led many to ask whether rich Vietnam War draft dodger Trump was being trolled. Definitely trolling Trump was Neil Young. Fresh from backing fellow rocker Bruce Springsteen in his war of words with Trump, Young invited the US president to attend one of his concerts. He then released his latest LP a day before Trump's birthday. Its song "Big Change" is aimed directly at Trump, and on "Let's Roll Again", Young urges US car makers to go electric, singing: "Build us something that won't kill our kids, runs real clean." But he rules out Trump's on-and-off buddy, Tesla CEO Elon Musk, with the lyric: "If you're a fascist, get a Tesla." LISTEN>>>
04. RYAN CASSATA - GREETINGS FROM ECHO PARK, CA
Also inspired by Springsteen is the new album by folk-punk singer-songwriter Ryan Cassata, released a week earlier. Its title and artwork both reference Springsteen's debut album, Greetings from Asbury Park, N.J. But also just like Springsteen, the queer Los Angeles-based musician questions the "American Dream" - the notion that any American can achieve success. On “QUEER american DREAM”, he addresses life under rulers such as Trump - a homophobe who is waging war on diversity, equality and inclusion initiatives - and Musk, a transphobe whose war on what he calls "the woke mind virus" began with his disgust at his own child becoming trans. "Maybe it's awful how I start to sink on the brink of too many thoughts," sings Cassata. “I spent hours and hours thinking of oppressors in power, like when will I be free? I been preaching since I was a teen, but when you’re queer, there’s no American dream.” LISTEN>>>
05. BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN - TRACKS II
On June 27, Springsteen himself released not one, but seven albums - a collection of "lost" LPs, recorded from 1983 to 2018. Discussing the release with The New York Times, he laid into Trump yet again. Calling the US president a "moron", Springsteen attacked Trump's deployment of the military against pro-immigrant activists. “There are communities all across America now that have taken in immigrants and migrant workers," said the rock star. "So what’s going on at the moment to me is disgusting, and a terrible tragedy." Yet his new collection shows he has been addressing divisive politics in his country for more than 40 years. On "The Klansman", recorded in 1983, he sings about a boy's initiation into the Ku Klux Klan in the words of the boy's father: "When the war between the races leaves us in a fiery dream, it'll be a Klansman who will wipe this country clean - this, son, is my dream." LISTEN>>>
06. GARBAGE - LET ALL THAT WE IMAGINE BE THE LIGHT
Addressing that same racism is the new album from "Stupid Girl" hitmakers Garbage. On "There’s No Future In Optimism", the US band's Scottish singer, Shirley Manson, references the police killing of African-American George Floyd. "The night is dark and full of terror," she sings. "The air is thick with helicopters. People marching, cops are swarming. The city’s on fire and the sirens are screaming." Discussing it, she said: "I was changed entirely by seeing the footage of that cop kneeling on George Floyd’s neck. In Los Angeles there were huge protests." The LP's song "R U Happy Now" also skewers Trump supporters with the words: "Make no mistake friend, they hate your women, they rob your children and they love their guns." As news of the LP's politics spread, the right-wing Daily Mail attacked the band, but Manson hit back, slamming the article for trying "to put a woman like me in my place”. LISTEN>>>
07. JUNGAJI - BETTING ON BLAK
Police racism was also the focus of protests in Australia on June 1. Vigils were held for Aboriginal man Kumanjayi White, who was killed while being restrained by plainclothes police officers inside a Coles supermarket in Mpartnwe/Alice Springs on May 27. His grandfather noted that White's death came on the fifth anniversary of the killing of George Floyd. As the protests kicked off a national week of action to stop Black deaths in custody, Aboriginal soul singer Jungaji released his acclaimed new album. The musician is the chair of the Dhadjowa Foundation, which helps Indigenous families whose relatives died in custody, and provides songwriting workshops for prisoners. “I tell politicians, rather than spending money building concrete jails, look at programs such as hip-hop festivals and sports matches to build up their respect for themselves and for their communities,” he said. LISTEN>>>
08. ROGER KNOX - BULUUNARBI AND THE OLD NORTH STAR
Politicians' spending priorities were laid bare on June 12, when the US announced a review into its AUKUS defence deal with Australia. Despite Aboriginal people across Australia being mired in poverty, the government has pledged to spend $33 million a day on AUKUS for the next 30 years. Yet on the same day the review was announced, The Sydney Morning Herald's chief political commentator suggested Australia should commit even more money to the deal. Addressing that inequality and the incarceration of Aboriginal people is the new album from revered Indigenous singer Roger Knox, released days earlier. Its song "Prison Wall" reflects the Gomeroi artist's long history of playing in jails, which he sees as an opportunity to uplift and connect with those inside. "I've been performing in the prisons for many years," he said. "It's a place where you have to give it everything you've got." LISTEN>>>
09. JENNIFER REID - THE BALLAD OF THE GATEKEEPER
Activists protested Australia's continued attacks on Aboriginal people on June 2, as they marched against the approval of Woodside's gas extension, a "climate bomb" that threatens to destroy ancient Indigenous rock art. The same day, more than 2000 people rallied in Boorloo/Perth to protest mining in Jarrah native forests. That action came as Peruvian indigenous group Wampís of Guayabal released a new album, with all proceeds going to help fight deforestation in the Amazon. As smoke from Canada's wildfires drifted across New York and Britain, Canadian band Lowest Of The Low released their new LP, which calls for "socialism or barbarism". That was followed by the unique new album by English folk musician Jennifer Reid, on which she tackles climate change. On "When the rivers rise, so must we", she sings: "The greed, injustice, and fires and death pave the path for our children's fate." LISTEN>>>
10. PULP - MORE
Reid recently played as the warm-up act for British indie band Pulp, who released their first album in 24 years on June 7. On its track "Farmer's Market", singer Jarvis Cocker also cites climate change as he intones: "That's when I saw you, babe, in the car park of the farmer's market, backlit by the sunset, or maybe the fires marking the end of the world." Discussing the LP, he said: "I like a utopian future where nature is at the centre. I feel that many of the modern problems are because people are misled about climate change and see nature as an enemy that will knock down their house or give them skin cancer." The album is as lofty as the lanky singer, standing head and shoulders above almost everything else out there. But it is a lyric from one of his solo albums in the intervening years whose bluntness best reflects the despair at today's global woes: "Cunts are still running 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. Mat Ward's latest single is the Andrew Tate-baiting "Small Dick Energy".]
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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.