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 2025.
1. ROGER WATERS - THIS IS NOT A DRILL - LIVE FROM PRAGUE
At the start of August, New South Wales' Supreme Court ruled in favour of a "March for Humanity" for Gaza over Sydney's Harbour Bridge. The judge stressed "the right to freedom of assembly". The media stressed the "massive disruption" and cost. Up to 300,000 people marched in the pouring rain. A week later, Australia's Prime Minister cited "humanity’s hope" as he announced the nation would recognise the state of Palestine. Days later, Britain's Daily Telegraph reported a Palestine benefit concert under the headline: "Why there’ll never be a pro-Palestine protest song." Yet on August 6, US protest musician David Rovics had released not just one, but a whole album of acoustic pro-Palestine songs. Five days earlier, famously pro-Palestine musician Roger Waters of Pink Floyd put out a powerfully political live LP, which starts by advising any audience members against his politics to "fuck off to the bar". LISTEN>>>
2. COUNTLESS THOUSANDS - WOKE MORALISTS
As the US continued to arm Israel's genocide of Palestinians, President Donald Trump rolled out the red carpet for another war criminal on August 15. His meeting with Russian president Vladimir Putin to broker a peace deal with Ukraine was widely mocked as an attempt to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. But by Trump's own admission, it was even less noble than that. "I just want to get to heaven," he told Fox News on August 20. Evidently, saving Muslims from genocide doesn't qualify. A week before the Trump-Putin meeting, California punks Countless Thousands released their catchy and comedic new LP, which slams both leaders. On the track "MAGA" they mock Trump's "Make America Great Again" followers. And on "F*ck P*tin", they howl: "No one loves an imperialist, authoritarians don't get a hug, don't get a kiss!" Days later, grunge pioneers Superchunk skewered such evil "old men" on their new LP. LISTEN>>>
3. WOODY GUTHRIE - WOODY AT HOME VOL 1 + 2
Countless Thousands quote legendary protest singer Woody Guthrie on their album's liner notes with the words: "This land is your land, this land is my land." Those same words kick off a new LP of previously unheard recordings by Guthrie, released on August 14. Guthrie's daughter Nora suspects he wrote its song "Backdoor Bum and the Big Landlord” about Donald Trump’s racist property developer father, who was the Guthries' landlord at the time. Guthrie's granddaughter Anna Canoni, meanwhile, praised prolific protest singer Jesse Welles as he released a new album on August 22. “The beauty of Woody’s work is that music can bring people together, and that’s what I’m hoping for Jesse’s work," she said. "But,” she added with a laugh, “no pressure.” At least Welles looks genuine, unlike supposedly progressive musician Michael Franti, who cancelled a tour on August 20 as he was accused of sexual misconduct. LISTEN>>>
4. TERRI LYNE CARRINGTON & CHRISTIE DASHELL - WE INSIST 2025!
Donald Trump displayed his father's racism again on August 26, as the US president ordered the removal of the US Federal Reserve's first Black governor, Lisa Cook. Trump biographer Michael Wolff said the move reflected what he alarmingly called the Trump team's "hatred of fat Black women". A fortnight earlier, US jazz musicians Terri Lyne Carrington and Christie Dashiell discussed their new LP, which updates Max Roach's revered 1960 protest album We Insist! "The sad thing is the theme – a plea for racial justice – is still relevant in this country," said Carrington. "It may be a little different to 1960, but it’s still relevant." However, the album doesn't just copy the original LP - it expands on it with new songs and issues. “Times change," said Carrington. "Unfortunately, racial justice is still a thing in this country, and all over the world, and we’re also dealing with gender justice." LISTEN>>>
5. DJ K - RADIO LIBERTADORA!
Brazil's racist, sexist, homophobic former president and military commander Jair Bolsonaro was placed under 24-hour watch before a coup trial verdict on August 27 due to fears he would flee the country. Bolsonaro, a Trump ally, is accused plotting to overthrow his democratically elected, leftist successor as president, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva. On August 8, Brazilian baile funk musician DJ K released his new album, which explores his country's long history of coups and attempted coups. "The album's title nods to Brazil's legacy of resistance against military dictatorship," said DJ K. "Its opening track boldly declares 'down with military dictatorship', sampling a historic speech by communist guerrilla leader Carlos Marighella, originally broadcast during a clandestine radio takeover in 1969. This is more than an album — it’s a manifesto set to the raw pulse of São Paulo's underground." LISTEN>>>
6. HARU NEMURI - EKKOLAPTÓMENOS
Also resisting her country's shift towards Trump-like, xenophobic politics is Japanese underground pop star Haru Nemuri, with her new album, released on August 1. "With the recent rise of populism and nationalism, things have gotten pretty bad," said the musician, whose stance is unusual in a country where most artists deliberately avoid politics. "Japanese audiences don't necessarily respond when I talk about being an anarchist or a feminist." As she puts it on the album's track "Symposium": "This country sucks!" Four days after its release, Japan beat Germany to win a $10 billion contract to build Australian navy warships. Countering such jingoism, Australian peace activists held a lantern parade in Tharawal/Wollongong on August 9. It marked 80 years since the US dropped an atomic bomb on the Japanese city of Nagasaki, three days after its nuclear attack on Hiroshima, killing more than 200,000 people. LISTEN>>>
7. VYLET PONY - LOVE & PONYSTEP
Peace was probably the last thing on the mind of Luigi Mangione when he allegedly shot dead UnitedHealth's CEO last year. Yet the killing unleashed support worldwide from people who detest insurers' often fatal policies. On August 15, so-called "benevolent billionaire" Warren Buffett followed his recent investment in fossil fuels by tipping $US1.5 billion into UnitedHealth shares, despite the firm facing a criminal probe. Summing up the sentiment towards such bosses is the new album from experimental electronic trans artist Vylet Pony. "We're gonna party on the grave of a CEO," it declares. "Kiss me over fat beats, download that revolution in a zip file baby, take it all back from the nepo babies." As fellow LGBTIQA+ artists Ethel Cain, Big Freedia and Ali Sethi released LPs, the Australian Football League sparked outrage by paying homophobic rapper Snoop Dogg $2 million to play its Grand Final. LISTEN>>>
8. HILLTOP HOODS - FALL FROM THE LIGHT
As Greens Senator Sarah Hanson-Young put it: "Australia has enough world-class talent to rock the AFL Grand Final, so why Snoop Dogg?" One such act would be rap trio Hilltop Hoods, whose latest LP, released on August 1, became their sixth consecutive No.1 album. Sadly, its only political track, "Don’t Happy, Be Worry" sparked a backlash from fans for criticising Trump, Tesla CEO Elon Musk, neo-Nazis, climate change and nuclear war. “It's pretty amusing seeing the amount of middle-aged men that want to defend the richest people on the planet that I'm pretty sure have never done anything for them personally,” said band member Pressure. His bandmate Suffa added: “I never thought I'd reach a time in my life when people had their favourite billionaire.” It came as Musk joined other billionaires pouring billions into highly polluting artificial intelligence, despite it making huge losses and raising power bills. LISTEN>>>
9. CROWN AND COUNTRY - CROWN AND COUNTRY
As Australia's Labor government continued to wreck the environment by pouring billions of dollars into fossil fuel subsidies, Naarm/Melbourne musician Marc "Monkey" Peckham hit back with a collaborative album featuring a Warlpiri elder and his songman father on August 1. On its track "Wantarri (Gift)", Jerry Jangala Patrick sings as his son, Wanta Jampijinpa Pawu-Kurlpurlurnu, says: "I want to crown you lot with the original crown of this country, the southern cross. You can be called Australian if you know the land, because it'll know you. Maintain the balance, live in harmony." Three weeks later, Hand To Earth, another collaboration between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal musicians, released their deep, ambient album. "We each have our own relationship to this place, its difficult history, its contended present, its clouded future," they said. "This music is perhaps a way of thinking through this." LISTEN>>>
10. MUDRAT - SOCIAL COHESION
Adding to Australia's clouded future are the new anti-protest laws proposed by Victoria's Labor government. On August 12, protesters rallied outside Victoria's parliament against the “Social Cohesion Pledge”, which Labor was set to table at the end of the month. In a direct reference, Naarm/Melbourne punk rapper Mudrat released his pro-Palestine album, Social Cohesion, on August 29. The LP, which mocks the "attempt to criminalise protest" and attacks "rich cunts", came just days after new research showed the average CEO in Australia earns more than 100 times as much as the average full-time worker. On August 24, the media again slammed the cost of protests as 200,000 people rallied across Australia for Palestine. Such reporters' support for genocide looked all the more pathetic when, the next day, Israel killed five more journalists, bringing the total killed in the war to almost 200. 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, In Our Blood.]
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Read about more political albums.
Stream our new “Best protest songs of 2025” playlist. This replaces the previous “Political albums” playlist, that was getting too big at more than 700 albums.