Do you think there's no good protest music these days? So did I, until I started looking for it. The truth is, it's 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's political news. Here's the round-up for February 2023.
1. ORBITAL - OPTICAL DELUSION听
On February 1, workers across Britain struck against pay cuts as the cost of living continued to rise. Hitting back at the capitalists' Tory pals in power is the exceptional new album from British dance music pioneers Orbital, released just days later. On its sublime lead single, "Dirty Rat", Sleaford Mods singer Jason Williamson rants: "People talk about the right way to live. Shut up, you don鈥檛 know what ya on about. You voted for em, look at ya! You dirty rat." The album further addresses division and discontent in songs such as "The New Abnormal" and "Requiem For The Pre Apocalypse". Such messages are rare in dance music, but . The duo made their 1990 debut on music show Top Of The Pops in and wrote 1992 eco-rave anthem "Impact (The Earth Is Burning)", reworked last year as "Impact (30 Years Later And The Earth Is Still Burning Mix)". 听
2. PARAMORE - THIS IS WHY听
Also interrogating inequality is the on her dizzyingly dynamic , released on February 10. "War, a war, a war on the far side, on the other side of the planet," she hollers on "The News". "And I've got war, a war, a war right behind my eyes. Right behind them just like a headache... Far, I'm far, so far from the front line. Quite the opposite, I'm safe inside. But I worry and I give money and I feel useless behind this computer. And that's just barely scratched the surface of my mind." Explaining the song, for her leftist politics and provocative feminism, said: 鈥. And I feel a pang of guilt when I unplug to protect my headspace. The common reaction, or non-reaction, seems to be dissociation.鈥
3. MHAOL - ATTACHMENT STYLES听
Also flying the feminist flag is the , which came out swinging on February 24 packed with seething songs such as "Pussy Riot", "Feminist Song", "I Will Never Wear Stilettos" and "I Am Rage". Days earlier, Irish post-punks Mhaol released their equally defiant new album, which opens with . On it, they fume: "I鈥檝e heard what they say about girls like me. I鈥檓 just the dumb bitch that left the party with you. Was I asking for it? Did I ask for it? Was I asking for it? Did I ask for it? No." Four days after the album's release, Australian former federal Liberal political staffer for their coverage of allegations made by his former colleague, Brittany Higgins, who said he raped her following a night of drinking.
4. IRIS DEMENT - WORKIN' ON A WORLD听
On February 24, Sydney rapper , which posits that sexist humans are a "work in progress". ", but we can help dismantle it even if we carry shame from our past behaviour," he said. "We can change." Similar sentiments about political progress are seen on , the from folk music icon Iris DeMent, which was released the same day. On its title track, she opines: 鈥淚 get up in the mornin鈥 knowing I鈥檓 privileged to be workin鈥 on a world I may never see.鈥 And on 鈥淗ow Long鈥 she offers hope, "even if the to bend towards justice". The album covers many topics in diverse "marching songs" that aim 鈥渢o fortify you in your fight against evil鈥, as she puts it. Musically and politically, it hits all the right notes. An instant classic. 听
5. KELELA - RAVEN听
On February 25, LGBTIQ people and their supporters marched in Sydney's Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras, despite the increasing attempts to detach the annual event from its political roots. It came as participants voiced increasing anxiety about the in the parade, whose crowds 听were also being for the first time. On February 10, acclaimed R&B star Kelela released her new album, aimed squarely at "the people who have been supporting her all along: ". 鈥淚 started this process from the in dance music, despite its Black origins," she said. "RAVEN is my first breath taken in the dark, an affirmation of Black femme perspective in the midst of systemic erasure and the sound of our vulnerability turned to power.鈥
6. MACY GRAY - THE RESET听
On February 14, R&B star Macy Gray turned that vulnerability to power when she released her new album about the post-traumatic stress disorder . The album came as Memphis police were indicted for murder following their "modern-day lynching" of 29-year-old Tyre Nichols. , who has formed a charity to support the relatives of Black people killed by police. "I don't think people are aware that three people die via the police on average every day. So, the 99.9% of those you don't hear about, and most 99.9% of those don't get any kind of settlement. Don't see a penny." On February 24, . On its track "Bite Back", guest rapper Backxwash slams racist killer cops with the words: 鈥淭hese fascists don鈥檛 mask they faces, they do just what they do.鈥 听
7. MAELSTROM & LOUISAHHH - SUSTAINED RESISTANCE听
Also expressing trauma at the state of US politics is the new album from Louisahhh, released on February 10. The record, made with her long-time techno-punk collaborator Maelstrom, expresses her "" on the tracks "Vixen" and "America". "This body of work was carved from darkness, and not in a kind of goth trope, but more of a lived horror-show," they said. "Post-pandemic disillusionment and disenfranchised grief, rage at broken systems doing exactly what they were designed to do (serve the few at the expense of the many), the overturning of Roe v听Wade in the United States; all of these external factors have demanded a new urgency and fearlessness in the kind of work that Maelstrom and Louisahhh are creating. This record travels in a gritty and fierce direction, directly engaging with present issues with timeless execution." 听
8. BLACK BELT EAGLE SCOUT - THE LAND, THE WATER, THE SKY听
As Canadian cops decried the US police who killed Tyre Nichols, activists called out their hypocrisy, pointing to at least 117 police-involved deaths in Canada last year. Vancouver鈥檚 police chief condemned the Memphis killing but did not acknowledge that his force killed three people last year, two of whom were Indigenous. One record found 87 people were shot by police in Canada between January 1 and November 30 last year, and 46 of those were fatal. They identified race in only 23 cases, more than 40% of which involved Indigenous people. On February 10, Native American indie musician Katherine Paul released her cinematic new album as Black Belt Eagle Scout. Its opener, 鈥淢y Blood Runs Through This Land鈥, pays homage to her ancestors by recording her feelings as she wanders through her homeland, " and paddling through Similk Bay", Washington. 听
9. THE FREEDOM COLLECTIVE - SONGS FOR FREEDOM听
On February 5, as Australians called for a police crackdown on an "Aboriginal crime wave" in Alice Springs, a senior law lecturer at the University of Technology Sydney said such a move would merely continue the brutal colonisation of Indigenous people. 鈥淪egregation these days is not in camps, it is in prisons," said Thalia Anthony. Of the 40,000 people in Australian prisons, 31% are First Nations people, despite making up only 3% of the population. On February 13, it was reported that New South Wales , as nearly half of kids searched aged 10 to 11 were Indigenous. Four days later, songwriting workshop The Freedom Collective released their . It was recorded in Western Australia, the state with the nation's highest rate of Indigenous incarceration.
10. MARY OCHER - POWER AND EXCLUSION FROM POWER听
On February 15, anti-war activists marked 20 years since what was then the biggest protest in world history. Tens of millions of people took to the streets in 2003 to stop the US and its allies illegally invading Iraq for its oil. people. So the hypocrisy was stark on February 21, when current US president Joe Biden slammed Russian President Vladimir Putin's "" in invading Ukraine. Three days later, Russian-born experimental musician with a fundraising EP for Ukrainians. The record opens with 鈥淭he Curtain鈥, a pseudo Eastern-European folk . The same day, by releasing his new ambient album, which features haunting field recordings taken from around his besieged city of Kyiv.
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