Do you think there's no good protest music these days? So did I, until I started looking for it. The truth is, it鈥檚 always been out there, but it's sometimes just a bit difficult to find. Every month, I search it out, listen to it all, then round up the best of it that relates to that month鈥檚 political news. Here鈥檚 the round-up for May 2024.
1. PAUL WELLER - 66听
Workers marched for Palestinians' rights in May Day rallies worldwide on May 1. They joined countless students protesting for Palestinians on university campuses around the world. By May 14, more than from Britain's Great Escape music festival in solidarity with Palestine. Days later, Paul Weller, the fabled former singer with The Jam, also weighed in while discussing his new album, released on May 24. "With Israel and Palestine, it鈥檚 incredible that the whole world鈥檚 not up in arms about it," he said. "I don鈥檛 understand how, in the modern 21st century, genocide and ethnic cleansing seem to be brushed under the carpet. It鈥檚 fucking weird, man." On the album, hailed as " with 'Eton Rifles' in 1979", he blasts British politicians. "The UK is led by idiots," he said. "They don鈥檛 give a fuck." 听听
2. THE TANGENT - TO FOLLOW POLARIS听
Similar sentiments are found on the new album by Weller's fellow Englishman and revered progressive rocker Andy Tillison, released on May 10. Tillison's band, The Tangent, usually employ some of the world's best musicians, but many were unavailable for this album. Astoundingly, on the record, to stunning effect. There's not a boring moment on the album, including its epic, 21-minute, showpiece, "The Anachronism", in which he blasts the kind of choices faced by Britons in an election called days after its release. Red or blue? It's irrelevant, he sings. "Is it really 'freedom' with that ballot slip you鈥檝e been filling in so long? , theocracy鈥檚 fucked. Bureaucracy drives us, and the technocrats don鈥檛 care, they keep fanning the flames of discontentment, anyway, anyhow, anywhere.鈥 听 听
3. FEROCIOUS DOG - KLEPTOCRACY听
Kleptocracy is also in the crosshairs of British folk-punks Ferocious Dog, who , released on May 17. "Like a lot of people, I had never heard of the word kleptocracy," admitted singer Ken Bonsall when asked about its name. "There鈥檚 autocracies and democracies, but . I saw it on a T-shirt and I thought, 'Wow, that鈥檚 exactly what we have got with this government.'" The catchy, rabble-rousing record, which even features songs about protest singers, contains the kind of tunes drunken crowds will go wild for. "Being a folk punk band and a political band at the same time isn鈥檛 easy because a lot of bands of that genre try and imitate Dropkick Murphys and Flogging Molly, with singing songs about being Irish and getting drunk," said Bonsall. "Yeah, we鈥檝e still got the Irish side, but I鈥檓 very political, a socialist."
4. KIRAN AHLUWALIA - COMFORT FOOD听
Such kleptocracy could be seen in May's election in India, where Britain's divide-and-rule partition was still being felt decades after the British left. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been sowing anti-Muslim hatred to woo the Hindu majority for decades. But as Western more women, on May 2. "There are factions that are creating religious divisions between Hindus and Muslims, between Hindus themselves of different castes," the acrobatic vocalist said while discussing her new album, whose last song is based on Hussain Haidry's poem about a women's protest. "He wrote the poem in response to an all-women peaceful protest in an area of New Delhi called Shaheen Bagh," she said. "Even though it was a peaceful protest, the police got violent... once you unleash a tyrant, you don鈥檛 know who else they will oppress." 听
5. ANI DIFRANCO - UNPRECEDENTED SH!T听
Women's oppression is at the forefront of US feminist musician , Unprecedented Sh!t, released on May 17. 鈥 in many ways, faced with unprecedented challenges," she said. The album's lead single, Baby Roe, is about the adult child of Norma McCorvey (aka Jane Roe), born and adopted-off in the course of her mother鈥檚 quest for the right to a legal abortion. "Baby Roe, unaware of her role in history until she was an adult, remains, nonetheless, in support of a woman鈥檚 right to choose," said DiFranco. "As I would be." The album came as former Australian PM Scott Morrison said he was pleased to meet with former US president Donald Trump, "especially given the pile-on he is currently dealing with in the US鈥. Referring to 88 felony charges and paying hush money to a porn star as a "pile-on" , noted one columnist. 听听
6. GIRLI - MATRIARCHY听
A more palpable pile-on is the perennial patriarchy upheld by the likes of Trump and Morrison. Among its critics are "lesbian pop" musician Girli, who released her new album, Matriarchy, on May 17. On its title track, she sings: 鈥淲hen we touch, .鈥 Asked about it, she said: "When I wrote that song it was about queer women finding solace from the patriarchy and the male gaze in each other's embrace. It was about reclaiming your body and your sexuality and trying to reverse years and years and . But then I thought about the community that I've built with my fans about how that word meant to me a safe space. The idea of 鈥榤atriarchy鈥 became like a utopia, where anyone who doesn't thrive in the current society that we live in, which is ruled by white cisgendered men, can just take a break." 听听
7. RYAN CASSATA - THIS MACHINE KILLS TRANSPHOBIA
It seemed progressives had caught a break on May 12, when music contest . The announcement came after days of to take part, despite from the "apolitical" competition due to its war on Ukraine. But on May 15, bigotry reared its ugly head again as Peru officially . Five days earlier, award-winning musician and transgender activist Ryan Cassata skewered such ignorance with his new punk EP. 鈥This Machine Kills Transphobia is a provocative and empowering title for a quickfire six-track collection that takes on everything from organised religion to conservatism in an effort to rail against the systemic elements that ," he said. "Yet, with every fiery denouncement comes an encouraging message of love.鈥 听听
8. MDOU MOCTAR - FUNERAL FOR JUSTICE听
Also empowering the oppressed was , with his , released on May 3. After the album鈥檚 recording during his band鈥檚 2023 North American tour, , Niger, stranding them the US. Niger's colonial overlord, France, subsequently withdrew its last 1500 troops. But Moctar opposed the coup just as he did French colonialism, pushing for peace instead. 鈥淲e have to say that even if it鈥檚 difficult, even if it鈥檚 unsafe for us,鈥 he said. 鈥淎ll those feelings push us to do this album and give it this strong name: Funeral for Justice.鈥 Meanwhile, opposition to French colonialism continued, as deadly on May 15. The protests flared partly over a new bill adopted by MPs in Paris that would let French expats vote in the province鈥檚 elections, diluting the Kanak vote. 听听
9. TROY CASSAR-DALEY - BETWEEN THE FIRES
Anti-colonial on , the chart-topping new album by Aboriginal country musician Troy Cassar-Daley, released on May 10. On the song "Windradyne", he recalls the warrior who led the fight between his Wiradjiri people and British settlers. "One day in the bush stood three ghostly men," he sings, "who said our land is theirs and the trouble soon began. My name is Windradyne, they call me Saturday. Come Sunday, I'll be gone, in the bush, I melt away. I fought for my people on this country where I lay. My name is Windradyne, remember me that way." Days before its release, an Aboriginal teenager who'd won $1 million in a fishing contest was interviewed by a white Sky News presenter whose first question was to ask the boy . The boy refrained from saying that the interviewer's people had stolen Aboriginal land.
10. JOHN BUTLER - RUNNING RIVER
The flow-on effects of that land theft run throughout Running River, the from Australian musician and environmental activist John Butler. Explaining the record, released on May 24, he said: 鈥淚 feel that life in an age of post-truth, social media and relentless data inundation, , and 鈥 if I was not too bold to say - global society collectively, at least in the west, is a bit shattered in the nervous system department.鈥 That environmental strain is also addressed by "", Frog In Boiling Water, by DIIV. The title refers to the infamous experiment in which frogs fail to jump out of water as its temperature gradually rises, killing them. The album came as Trump, whose right-wing followers often use "" profile pictures, in exchange for favours. 听
[Mat Ward has been writing for听麻豆传媒听since 2009. He also wrote听听and听makes听political music.听.]
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