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鈥檚 political news. Here鈥檚 the round-up for February 2025.
1. R脴RY - RESTORATION
Argentinians staged a million-person march against the transphobia of their president on February 1. A week later, Australians protested against a ban on critical healthcare for trans people under the age of 18. The moves came days after the debut album by British alt-metal musician R脴RY, whose previous singles have amassed more than half a billion streams. In the artwork and video for the album's single "MORALITY $UICIDE", R脴RY sports clothing emblazoned with "TRANS RIGHTS" and "FREE PALESTINE". On it, she sings: "I think maybe there's a problem on this planet. When did war become our universal language? They drop bombs and turn a hospital to ashes. That's collateral damage. There's people starving, children dying in this madness, and politicians funding wars with people's taxes." Days later, US punk , which also points out that people's taxes pay for genocide. 听
2. HOUR OF REPRISAL - ENDLESS WAR, ENDLESS PEACE
As Australian taxpayers continued to protest against the export of arms to Israel, Islamophobic and antisemitic attacks proliferated across Australia.听The new LP by British hardcore punks Hour Of Reprisal, released on February 21, reminded listeners that when nations export war, it returns home. On "Surgical Strike", they blast: "Reflecting on our nations' complicity, endless war for an endless peace. Never learn the lesson of history: War exported always comes home. The weapons that they test on mass civilian death. Occupier / oppressor brought back to us." Discussing the song, they said: "The governments of the UK, the US, and Germany have supported Israel throughout their genocide, and their populations have largely accepted it too. We've allowed them to behave this way abroad, so why would they not bring it back? And when the war comes home, will we know when we鈥檙e marked for death?"听
3. CONFESS - DESTINATION ADDICTION听
Despite an official ceasefire, Israel continued killing Palestinians at the start of February, sparking protests across Australia and the world. A week later, South Africa's , featuring the song "Ceasefire Of Lies". "They say there鈥檚 peace, but the bombs still fall," it asserts. "Not in the open, but behind the wall. The world looks away, turns a deafened ear, while a people鈥檚 cry rings sharp and clear. Gaza burns, and the ashes rise, a ceasefire built on a web of lies." Two days after its release, Israel shifted operations to a . That move followed the new LP from Iranian metal band Confess, who fled Iran after being . "This album isn't just music," they said. "It鈥檚 , from the Women, Life, Freedom movement in Iran to the wars raging in the Middle East and Europe." 听
4. JESSE WELLES - MIDDLE听
That chaos continued on February 5, when US President Donald Trump announced an illegal plan to clear all the Palestinians out of Gaza before redeveloping it as prime real estate, owned by the US. US folk musician Jesse Welles, whose song mocking the beginnings of that plan went viral last year, released his new album a fortnight later. Welles has become , as he puts it, racking up millions of views and streams. But his new LP deliberately avoids being too topical. It is, however, still . Its "War Is A God" alludes to the absurdity of wars fought over religion when all faiths are so similar. "Maybe man don't make the war," he sings. "Maybe war is just a God. And every bullet, every bombshell, meditations thrown aloft. Bloodshed and starvation, bloodshed and pain. We all got the same damn God, we just call it different names." 听
5. THE WEATHER STATION - HUMANHOOD听
Critics of Trump's illegal plan to redevelop Gaza pointed out that such an operation would also take decades and billions of dollars. That suggested the damage was as irreversible as Trump's infamous climate-wrecking policies. A fortnight after his announcement, Toronto experimental folk outfit The Weather Station released their new album, which features the climate-themed song "Irreversible Damage". The band's singer-songwriter, Tamara Lindeman, said , rampant political division, gridlock on climate action and artificial intelligence鈥檚 threats against creative labour, as well as destabilisation of a personal nature. 鈥淎 relationship can be a little personal fascism,鈥 she said. 鈥淚t doesn鈥檛 really feel very different to living in a world where there鈥檚 absolutely no concern being given to the biggest planetary crisis.鈥
6. BONNIE 'PRINCE' BILLY - THE PURPLE BIRD听
US punks Squid also on their new LP, which focuses on the banal evil of human nature. 鈥淭he future鈥檚 perfect," they sing on its closing track, "from the back seat.鈥 Taking a similar tack is the new album from revered experimental musician Bonnie "Prince" Billy. : "What's in the water? What's in the wind? The weather is wilder than it's ever been. The ocean's still blue, but it ain't what it seems. It's time to remember that we all live downstream." Dublin indie rocker Bren Berry also address the urgency of the situation on his debut album, released days earlier. On its activist-praising "environmentalist anthem", titled 鈥淜nives (Heavy Metal Rain)鈥, he sings: "You don鈥檛 bring knives to a gunfight, a final shot to save your life."
7. ROSA BORDALLO - ISIDRO听
Rather than fighting to save the planet, Australia's red-baiting media were more concerned with combating China on February 19 when they announced: Ironically, it took a right-wing politician to point out the West has been surrounding China in such ways for decades. 鈥淲e can鈥檛 be talking about freedom of navigation in the South China Sea and then jump up and down over something like this,鈥 . The news came days after the release of the new LP by Rosa Bordello, an , which is claimed as a US territory despite being far closer to China. On its track "Home" she blasts the US militarisation of her country, singing: "They tell us the biggest lie, that they鈥檙e here to protect. But all they鈥檝e ever done for us: Wreak havoc and desecrate our dead." 听
8. SAM FENDER - PEOPLE WATCHING听
Such shifts in global power are addressed on "Crumbling Empire", a song on the new album by English pop star Sam Fender, released on February 21. Fender, who owes much of his stadium-sized success to the fact he , sings: "My old man worked on the rail yard, getting his trade on the electrical board. It got privatised, the work degraded, in this crumbling empire. My mother delivered most the kids in this town. my step-dad drove in a tank for the crown. They left them homeless, down and out, in their crumbling empire." Taking a chainsaw to America's crumbling empire was Trump's "first buddy", Elon Musk. The world's richest person literally - gifted to him by Argentina's transphobic president, Javier Milei - on February 20 as he touted more cuts to government jobs by his Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).
9. MANIC STREET PREACHERS - CRITICAL THINKING听
The acronym DOGE is a reference to Musk's favourite cryptocurrency, Dogecoin. As Milei handed him the chainsaw, he was facing his own crisis at home after promoting a similarly shonky coin. When Argentines began to panic it was some sort of scam, the coin crashed, with . Milei is just one of the far-right wingers Musk has been courting, along with the likes of jailed British Islamophobe Tommy Robinson. Taking aim at another admirer of Robinson, former Smiths singer-turned right-wing crooner Steven Morrissey, were Welsh rockers The Manic Street Preachers on their new album, released on February 14. On the possibly deliberately misspelled "Dear Stephen", bassist with the words: "Dear Stephen, please come back to us. I believe in repentance and forgiveness. It's so easy to hate, it takes guts to be kind, to paraphrase one of your heartbreak lines."
10. BE N!CE - WHERE AM I?听
As Musk wielded his chainsaw on stage, his former partner, leftist musician Grimes, was publicly pleading with the "deadbeat dad" to stop ignoring her about . It was a reminder that - far from being the great father he pretends to be as he takes his son, X, everywhere - to many of his children. He has also been accused of exposing himself to an air hostess and is working for a president who has been . Taking aim at such men is the new album from , released days earlier. On "One Bad Apple", they seethe: "Bet you鈥檙e feeling cool huh? Everything鈥檚 about you huh? Your fun always meant more than what you put her through huh? She should鈥檝e fucking killed you. I鈥檓 sure that she could鈥檝e. I鈥檓 sure you fucking knew. Made sure she couldn鈥檛 stop you. Get the fuck off me." 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. .]
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