This album was officially released on January 16, but for the last few months, it was available by donation on her website, as it was entirely crowdfunded. It’s 8 songs, it’s beautiful, powerful, and important. I’m writing this review on January 24th. Yesterday, tens of thousands of Minnesotans closed their shops, refused to go to work, and took to the streets in a general strike, braving temperatures of -15° F (-25° C) to stand up against ICE agents violating basic civil rights and kidnapping our neighbors to deport them. This morning, ICE agents executed Alex Pretti, a man who was merely helping a woman they had just sprayed in the face with pepper spray. To say I’m not in a good headspace is an understatement. But that’s why I sat down to listen to Carsie Blanton’s beautiful album and write this review.
Carsie Blanton is not new to fighting injustice. Folk music in general is a revolutionary genre with a long history of working-class solidarity and of standing up to fascism. Carsie Blanton is definitely not an exception to this phenomenal history. In 2025, she canceled her tour and joined the Freedom Flotilla, delivering medical supplies and food to the people of Gaza. The Flotilla was captured by the IDF and taken to Israeli prisons for the crimes of bringing medical supplies to victims of genocide. Parts of this album were written on the Flotilla, and parts were written from inside the cells of Israeli prisons.
The Red Album Part II opens with “Little Flame,” a soft, quiet track that reflects on protest leaders throughout history and the ongoing responsibility to fight for a better world. This song helped get me through a difficult day: witnessing injustice, then remembering even in defeat, we must keep the flame of justice alive. Alex Pretti filmed ICE to ensure accountability and was killed for his courage, reminding us it’s everyone’s duty to keep hope alive.
The second track is a cover of a Malvina Reynolds song- a folk tribute to a folk legend, called “I don’t mind failing”, a song about how failure by normal standards, because success is measured by succeeding at capitalism, an inherently evil system built on exploitation. If success is built through exploitation, then failure is the only acceptable way to live.
The next two tracks on the album are a little more upbeat and uptempo, with a bit more attitude. “FBI” is about the FBIs long history of putting agitators into any sort of movement they see as a threat in order to discredit the movement- whether they try to encourage violence and are the ones acting violently in order to damage the movement’s reputation, or they encourage others to act violently or try to get you to admit breaking the law in order to arrest members of a movement- fuck the FBI. As far as the song “Elon Musk” goes, well, he’s never done anything worth mentioning; he just takes the credit. Nothing good has ever been said about Elon Musk from anyone worth listening to, and nothing can ever be said bad enough to encapsulate the hate he deserves. At least this song is on the right track- plus, it’s catchy.
“Tango Luigi” is a sultry tango with a thick bass line about a terrible murderer and the hero that shot him, and goes on to discuss another similar event some time earlier. Everybody has their limit, and I think we are all getting closer to our own.
Following this track is a happier-sounding, upbeat folk track called “Hello Comrade” that still manages to feel somber, and I can’t exactly elaborate on that because I don’t speak musician. But it has a hope and a sadness in every note. The song was written the week after returning from Ktzi’ot prison in Israel. It’s written to another member of the Freedom Flotilla asking whether they made it home alive. The song acknowledges that they didn’t win, they didn’t defeat Israel. They didn’t get the aid or the food to the victims of Israel’s genocide. But they are still proud of what they did. They did what many of us didn’t- they tried. They raised attention. They fought for what they believed in, and they showed love and compassion, and a willingness to make real personal sacrifice in order to make a difference, and if we were all willing to do that much, this whole fucking world would be a hell of a lot better. So hello, comrade. I’m proud of what you did.
The 7th song is “Another War”, about US imperialism, and how there is always another war, and always another justification. The song was available for download with the rest of the album about 45 days before US forces invaded Venezuela, which, at the time of this writing, is the most current war we’ve been asked to justify. By the time you read this, that statement may no longer be accurate. The lyric goes “I can’t wait to hear what this one’s for. In the case of Venezuela, we were told it was because of the drugs that they were shipping in to the US- ironic since the President of the US had just pardoned someone convicted of smuggling in more drugs to the US than Venezuela exports as a country. In the same announcement of the strike on Venezuela and the capture of their head of state, we were already being told that we would be operating their massive oil fields. We were told it’s because their government is corrupt, they rigged elections, and they were a dictator. Those statements were not lies, but they weren’t the reason for the invasion. In fact, we left the government and left the vice president in charge of the country. Another war, another American empire striking where we want, lying to the public, young boys and girls killing and dying for an empire that does as it pleases.
The final song is perfect. The album ends exactly how I needed it to. My heart is broken. The world is ugly and dark. The temperatures are freezing, and I’m in the middle of a snowstorm. Government agents are executing people who dare to record as they kidnap. They used a 5-year-old child as bait to lure out parents to capture, then shipped the child across the country alone. I’ve got government officials telling me not to believe my eyes and ears, and that helping people is terrorism. I’ve got media complicit and running propaganda for the state. But the end of this album is a reminder that the government doesn’t have one thing- “the future”. The future is you and me. From the river to the sea- the future is you and me. And it’s ours to do as we need.
Don’t fall in these dark times. No matter how rough it gets, stand fast. The future is us and we. The future is you and me.
I love you, comrades.
Written by Gimp Leg
