Do you think there鈥檚 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 April 2025.
1. THE RESISTANCE COMPANY - RESISTANCE CO听
US President Donald Trump proudly revealed his tariffs for countries worldwide on April 2, to . The was "like apples, oranges, a couple of cashews divided by 10 times four鈥, said one Wall Street veteran. A financial analyst said it "would be ". Even Trump's "first buddy", Tesla CEO Elon Musk, was scathing, publicly calling Trump's tariff architect, Peter Navarro, . Markets plunged, worldwide. Three days later, millions rallied to protest against Trump, Musk and their Department of Government Efficiency's war on workers. The rallies came a day after radical New York punks The Resistance Company released . It features "Fuck Trump '25", a previous anthem they have updated to include the current US administration. "You know what to do," it seethes. "Fuck Elon Musk too!"
2. FEMI KUTI - JOURNEY THROUGH LIFE听
Musk, the world's richest person, had wasted little time in programs from the world's poor. "As a result," said Australian Baptist Minister Tim Costello on April 20, "an estimated this year who otherwise would not have." Days earlier, , who play instruments made from scrap metal, released . On it, they protest the horrors of working in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, where cobalt is . That LP was followed by the latest incendiary album from Femi Kuti, the son of legendary Nigerian protest singer Fela Kuti, on April 25. said Femi, yet not much had changed in politics. In "Nigeria, it's gotten worse", he said. "Everybody thinks the only way to be successful is through corruption."
3. CLUSTER LIZARD - HERTS听
Charges of corruption were also being levelled at Trump on April 9, for . 鈥淭HIS IS A GREAT TIME TO BUY!!!,鈥 he wrote on his social media platform, Truth Social. He then paused his tariffs, sending markets soaring 9.5% and adding $US304 billion to the combined net worth of the world's richest people - the in the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. Despite such wealth, he continued to claim the US was being ripped off, pressing Ukraine for a rare earths deal to end its war with Russia. The same day, said her first album in 30 years was inspired by the start of Israel's current war on Gaza, but became "about all of humankind". 鈥淎ny war is disgusting to me,鈥 she said. That followed the new from Ukrainian electronic act Cluster Lizard. The album is named "Herts", after an ancient Ukrainian warriors' death dance.
4. DAVID ROVICS - DEPORT THE BILLIONAIRES听
"Why is it always the poorest of the poor are the ones upon whom we're declaring war?" asks US protest singer . "What if we took back what was never really theirs, nationalise the banks and deport the billionaires?" The LP was released days before Trump's administration asked an appeals court on April 17 to block a judge鈥檚 directive that government officials be questioned about a Maryland . Meanwhile, it refused to bring back to the same place for "being in criminal gangs", despite some having no criminal record. It also continued to press for the deportation of Palestinian student Mahmoud Khalil, arrested for protesting against Israel's war on Gaza. "Mahmoud Khalil was at home with his pregnant wife," sings Rovics on the album's opening track, "when one day came the visit that would change his life."
5. LOS FASTIDIOS - LOVESTEADY听
Ridiculing such racism were on their , released on April 7. On its typically catchy and fun song "Why Don't You Eat Your Cat?", they mock Trump's claim during his election campaign that immigrants were eating Americans' pets. Days later, in the Vatican City state that Italy surrounds, for "deporting people who in many cases have left their own land for reasons of extreme poverty". The Pope died two days later. When Trump attended his funeral on April 26, the Cardinal running proceedings took a swipe at him with the Pope's words . Meanwhile, Sharon Osborne, the wife of rocker Ozzy Ozborne, called for - who are from Catholic backgrounds - to for slamming Israel at a US music festival on April 18. They replied that she should listen to her husband's song "War Pigs". 听
6. BELLS LARSEN - BLURRING TIME听
Canadian trans musician Bells Larsen revealed on April 12 that he was cancelling his US tour to promote his new album, which was released a fortnight later. 鈥淭o put it super plainly, because I鈥檓 trans (and have an M on my passport), ,鈥 he wrote. His move came as it was reported that to avoid such border crackdowns could cost the country's economy $US90 billion. documents his transition as Trump relentlessly attacked LGBTQ+ people. In a unique move, Larsen first recorded the album's vocals in his previous, higher pitched voice, then re-recorded them after his gender-affirming hormones lowered his voice. He then layered the two together, so it sounds like a male singer duetting with a female singer. A week before its release, Britain's Supreme Court also ruled that 鈥渨oman鈥 and 鈥渟ex鈥 refer to the sex assigned at birth.
7. DEAD PIONEERS - PO$T AMERICAN听
As to take on Trump, First Nations musician on April 25. On it, the dancefloor-focused DJ and producer, who pioneered "powwow-step" music with his group A Tribe Called Red, samples native people telling their stories of abuse. A fortnight earlier, Shub's fellow Canadian released her album of biting anti-colonialism with her new group, Ribbon Skirt. 鈥淭hey want 2000s ," she sings of whitewashed Indigeneity. "They want the pipe and the drum.鈥 Similarly acerbic resistance can be found on the by , released on April 4. On the track "Dead Pioneers", they spit: "One little, two little, three little cheers. Four little, five little dead pioneers. You brought death empire upon us all. Every time we say 'Land Back', you bawl." 听
8. MARLON WILLIAMS - TE WHARE TIWEKAWEKA听
Indigenous resistance also helped kill a controversial bill in Aotearoa/New Zealand on April 10. The Treaty Principles bill, which sought to 鈥渞edefine鈥 Aotearoa鈥檚 founding document in favour of the colonists, was defeated by 112 votes to 11. The vote came after M膩ori Party MP Hana-Rawhiti Maipi-Clarke made headlines worldwide by tearing up a copy of the bill, singing a song of defiance and to protest against it. She sings the same song on the latest , released a day after the bill's defeat. A week earlier, M膩ori pop star Marlon Williams released his first album , the native language the bill had sought to get rid of. said Williams in discussing his LP. 鈥淭he sense of shame around is a bit of a hard one to get over." 听
9. CYTOTOXIN - BIOGRAPHYTE听
An by neo-Nazis as he welcomed people to country in his native language at an Anzac Day service in Naarm/Melbourne on April 25. The hecklers were no doubt emboldened by opposition leader Peter Dutton's campaign to get rid of across Australia. As Dutton tried to shed his now-toxic Trump-like image in a bid to get elected on May 3, climate activists took aim at his听pro-nuclear power policy. Rising Tide members crashed his Liberal Party's media conference on April 22, saying: 鈥淪cientists say it isn鈥檛 a real solution to the climate crisis and members of the Liberals' own party are campaigning against it." A fortnight earlier, the , Cytotoxin, released . The brutal album features multiple appearances of a clicking Geiger counter and the heavy breathing of people both protected by gas masks and not. 听
10. DEBT NEGLECTOR - KINDA RIPS听
Nuclear war is one of the biggest threats to the human race. The other is climate change. On April 25, that threat got far worse. Trump's tariffs on April 2 had cut his own country off from the supply of rare earths it needs as China halted supply. In response, Australia began stockpiling its rare earths on April 23 as a bargaining chip to try to get Trump to reduce his tariffs Down Under. Instead, two days later, Trump signed an executive order to fast-track environmentally catastrophic deep-sea mining for the precious metals. The practice had so far been avoided because it " in absorbing planet-warming carbon dioxide from the atmosphere", reported The New York Times. Days earlier, US punks Debt Neglector released their , featuring the . 听"You reap what you sow," they sing. "So say goodnight."
[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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