For the first of Beatique’s Best of 2025 lists, I wanted to highlight political songs for a very specific reason. Politics aren’t brand safe. You’ll risk alienating the people who disagree with you. You might scare off the companies who would otherwise want to work with you. Blah blah blah. But, at a certain point, if you’re someone with a platform, be it music, art, film or writing, you will need to ask yourself, “Am I a brand? Or am I a human being who actually gives a shit about what’s happening in the world?” Hopefully, the latter is the answer.
Particularly in this moment, we need artists who are willing to be outspoken. For every semi-anonymous person (or bot) chiding you to “stick to the music,” there will be many more motivated to say, I’m against this too. Some might go to a protest, or write their local representatives or get involved with activist group. Maybe music can’t change minds, but it can prompt the quieter people to raise their voice. And, maybe, years from now, kids listening to the 2025 throwbacks will hear that there were people against genocide and fascism and exploiting workers and everything else that’s coming to a head right now. That said, much respect to the eleven artists on this list. They are by no means the only people making political music in 2025, but they made the songs that have been in my personal rotation. In keeping with an egalitarian theme, this list is not ranked.
Bob Vylan “Sick Sad World”
With a title (and cover art) that riffs on ‘90s cartoon series, Daria, “Sick Sad World” is an apt summary of the 2025 shitshow. English duo Bob Vylan’s commentary is U.K.-centric, with references to the BBC and Prime Minister Keir Starmer, but the imagery— food bank lines, lies on the news, politicians insisting that this is all fine— is applicable to the U.S. as well. After their excellent 2024 album, Humble As the Sun, where punk meets grime in a fiercely political collection of songs, and a year of controversy surrounding the duo’s pro-Palestine stance, Bob Vylan meets the moment in “Sick Sad World.”
Read: BOB VYLAN RAGES ABOUT OUR “SICK, SAD WORLD” ON NEW SINGLE
Moviola “Slage Wave”
Long-running indie band Moviola drops the truth in the chorus “Slage Wave,” from their eleventh album, Earthbound: “You’re a wage slave/From the cradle to your grave.” Chances are, most people reading this are, but also, as the song goes, “it’s the last phase of a bent and broken age.” The “Slage Wave” video, maybe my favorite video of the year, brings in a pro-labor message and the inevitability of a tech takeover with references to Johnny Paycheck and Pete Seeger. Watch it. Share it.
Read: MOVIOLA CAPTURES THE DIFFICULTY AND ABSURDITY OF AMERICAN LIFE ON ‘EARTHBOUND’
David J and the Resistance “ICE Too Cold to Thaw”
Inspired by a protest that he attended, David J wrote “ICE Too Cold to Thaw” in response to the Trump administration’s anti-immigration campaign. With references to disappearances, family separation, surveillance, J drives home the point that these draconian tactics are history tragically repeating. The song was released as a 7” vinyl single— with the rock version on the A-side and the “sad jazz version” on the B-side— to benefit USC Law’s immigration legal clinic fund.
Read: DAVID J SINGS OF HISTORY REPEATING IN NEW PROTEST SINGLE, “ICE TOO COLD TO THAW”
David J and the Resistance on Bandcamp
SAADI “Cowboy in a Ghost Town”
L.A.-based Boshra AlSaadi had written songs about Gaza before, but “Cowboy in a Ghost Town,” from her latest album as SAADI, Birds of Paradise, is her most overt. “You are a cowboy in a ghost town/You leave a dark legacy,” she sings, amidst references to watching the genocide in Gaza unfold on social media and being unable to do anything about it. “It’s very jarring to our psyche to be confronted with real violence and then full-on late stage, end stage, whatever you want to call it, capitalism, side-by-side,” AlSaadi said when interviewed for Beatique. She captures the anger and futility of the moment in “Cowboy in a Ghost Town.”
Read: ON BIRDS OF PARADISE, SAADI REFLECTS ON HUMAN NATURE AND DIGITAL LIVES
The Divine Comedy “Mar-a-Lago By the Sea”
Neil Hannon paints such a vivid portrait of Trump in “Mar-a-Lago By the Sea” that you can almost see tears streaming down an orange cheek as the grifter-in-chief reminisces about cheating at golf. From the latest Divine Comedy album, Rainy Sunday Afternoon, “Mar-a-Lago By the Sea” does what good satire should do and plays up the most absurd details that a thinking person will step back and say, “WTF are we doing?”
Read: THE DIVINE COMEDY IS BACK WITH RAINY SUNDAY AFTERNOON
Acidtrain “Delulu”
Last spring, I caught L.A.-based Acidtrain at Slipper Clutch, where he played “Delulu” for just the second time. The synth-punk jam takes on the billionaire class with a frenetic beat and singer Ryein Evan’s growling question, “What’s this obsession with cultivating wealth?” The song was released as a single n July, but it’s also the lead track on Acidtrain’s recently released full-length album, Away I Go.
Read: ACIDTRAIN ASKS “WHAT’S THIS OBSESSION WITH CULTIVATING WEALTH?” IN NEW SONG
Sextile “Rearrange”
There are other songs on Sextile’s latest album, Yes, Please, that are more overtly political than “Rearrange.” For all I know, this indie dance banger wasn’t even intended to be political, but that’s exactly how I read lyrics like, “Nothing seems to change/Everything’s the same/It’s driving us insane/Need to rearrange.” It’s a song that captures the absolute frustration of 2025 life in the U.S.
Read: SEXTILE DROPS RAVE-PUNK BANGERS ON YES, PLEASE
Gorillaz feat. Sparks “The Happy Dictator”
In a BBC interview, Damon Albarn revealed that “The Happy Dictator” was inspired by a trip to Turkmenistan. (There actually was a 2007 documentary about the country and its now-deceased dictator Turkmenbashi called The Happy Dictator.) Adding to the satirical mindfuck is Sparks singing, “Oh what a happy land we live in” as if high on soma. The song is giving Brave New World energy in such a strange and compelling way that I can’t help but dance even though I’m completely disturbed by it.
Snapped Ankles “Personal Responsibilities”
I was totally unfamiliar with Snapped Ankles before my friend and fellow DJ, Televandalist, recommended the London-based band to me. “Personal Responsibilities,” a dubby, glitchy, electronic jam from 2025 album Hard Times Furious Dancing, is call to action to anyone opposed to the control corporations wield over us, and the lack of responsibility they take over crises they cause. “We need the lifeguards for these stormy seas/To save us from this destiny,” the song concludes. Indeed.
Lambrini Girls “Filthy Rich Nepo Baby”
Lambrini Girls fiery debut full-length, Who Let the Dogs Out, is punk perfection, filled with equal parts humor and anger. My personal favorite is “Filthy Rich Nepo Baby,” a cheeky takedown of elite poseurs in the vein of Pulp’s “Common People.” While the targets here appear to be rich kid musicians, Lambrini Girls are really taking aim at a system that only works for the wealthy. As Phoebe Lunny sings, “To be an industry success/Sponsored ads, decent press/Born with a golden pot to piss in.”
Kneecap feat. Sub Focus “No Comment”
Since I’m only writing paragraph-length blurbs, I’m going to assume that you’ve been following the Kneecap saga of 2025 and will reiterate/paraphrase what the Northern Irish trio has been saying throughout the brouhaha, the story isn’t really about them. “No Comment” is specifically about the terrorism charges brought up against Kneecap’s Mo Chara, which were thrown out of court in September, an attempt silence a group that has been vocally opposed to Israel’s genocide of Palestinians in Gaza. A collaboration with producer Sub Focus, this dance floor-rattling dubstep banger with mixed Irish and English lyrics is a powerful statement from the band. And, Kneecap still isn’t the story here. As of November 30, 2025, 70,100 Palestinians have been killed and 170,965 have been wounded in the past two years. Of that number, 356 have been killed since the “ceasefire.” That’s the story.
Liz O. is an L.A.-based writer and DJ. Follow on Instagram or sign up for the weekly, Beatique newsletter for updates on new stories and gigs.
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