The Rainbow Children

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The Rainbow Children
Prince Rainbow.jpg
Studio album by
Prince
ReleasedNovember 20, 2001
RecordedSeptember 5, 2000–June 19, 2001
Studio Paisley Park, Chanhassen, Minnesota
Genre Jazz fusion [1]
Length68:49
Label NPG, Redline Entertainment
Producer Prince
Prince chronology
The Very Best of Prince
(2001)		The Rainbow Children
(2001)		 One Nite Alone...
(2002)
Singles from The Rainbow Children
  1. "The Work, pt. 1"
    Released: 2001
Professional ratings
Aggregate scores
SourceRating
Metacritic 54/100 [2]
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic Star full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar empty.svgStar empty.svg [3]
Entertainment Weekly C+ [4]
The Guardian Star full.svgStar full.svgStar empty.svgStar empty.svgStar empty.svg [5]
Mojo Star full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar empty.svgStar empty.svg [6]
Q Star full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar empty.svg [7]
Rolling Stone Star full.svgStar full.svgStar half.svgStar empty.svgStar empty.svg [8]
Slant Star full.svgStar full.svgStar empty.svgStar empty.svgStar empty.svg [9]
Spin 2/10 [10]
Tom Hull – on the Web B [11]
Uncut 4/10 [12]

The Rainbow Children is the twenty-fourth studio album by American recording artist Prince. It was released on November 20, 2001, by NPG Records and Redline Entertainment. It was also released through Prince's website earlier in the year. It is the first album released outside of the NPG Music Club to be released under the name of Prince again, as he had reverted to his previous stage name from his symbolic moniker a year earlier. It was released on double vinyl with a glossy color booklet, and was not available on vinyl again until the Legacy release in 2020.

Contents

This concept album illustrates common Prince themes of spirituality and human sexuality, as well as love and racism, through the fictitious story of a social movement toward a Martin Luther King Jr.-inspired utopian society. The album seems to allude to his recent conversion to the Jehovah's Witnesses denomination, but Egyptian monotheism and New Age concepts such as the Akashic records are used as metaphors as well. Jazzier than any of his previous efforts, it was met with mixed reactions. Some fans saw the album as a musical and spiritual evolution for Prince.[ citation needed ]

The Rainbow Children was released through the independent distributor Redline Entertainment. At Prince's decision, it received minimal promotion, as he wanted to focus more on the music and avoid commercialism. The album sold 158,000 copies in US stores as of summer 2007, with an estimated 560,000 copies worldwide. [13]

The album also had a dedicated promotional website that offered the tracks "She Loves Me 4 Me" and "Mellow" as free MP3 downloads.

The album cover features Cbabi Bayoc's "The Reine Keis Quintet". Prince favored the painting of a women's band, as he was backed by an all-female ensemble. [14]

Track listing

All songs written and produced by Prince.

The Rainbow Children track listing
No.TitleLength
1."Rainbow Children"10:03
2."Muse 2 the Pharaoh"4:21
3."Digital Garden"4:07
4."The Work, pt. 1"4:28
5."Everywhere"2:55
6."The Sensual Everafter"2:58
7."Mellow"4:24
8."1+1+1 Is 3"5:17
9."Deconstruction"2:00
10."Wedding Feast"0:54
11."She Loves Me 4 Me"2:49
12."Family Name"8:17
13."The Everlasting Now"8:18
14."Last December"7:58
15."Untitled"0:04
16."Untitled"0:04
17."Untitled"0:04
18."Untitled"0:04
19."Untitled"0:04
20."Untitled"0:08
21."Last December (Reprise)"0:38
Total length:68:49

Additional notes:

Personnel

Charts

2001 weekly chart performance for The Rainbow Children
Chart (2001)Peak
position
French Albums (SNEP) [15] 78
Swiss Albums (Schweizer Hitparade) [16] 74
US Billboard 200 [17] 109
US Independent Albums (Billboard) [18] 4
2020 weekly chart performance for The Rainbow Children
Chart (2020)Peak
position
Austrian Albums (Ö3 Austria) [19] 60
Dutch Albums (Album Top 100) [20] 28
French Albums (SNEP) [21] 75
German Albums (Offizielle Top 100) [22] 29
Scottish Albums (OCC) [23] 35
Swiss Albums (Schweizer Hitparade) [24] 30

References

  1. ↑ Thompson, Art (July 2004). "Crown of Creation: Prince Summons the Funk on Musicology". Guitar Player – via Prince interview archive.
  2. ↑ "Critic Reviews for The Rainbow Children". Metacritic . Retrieved September 16, 2011.
  3. ↑ Erlewine, Stephen Thomas. "Prince: The Rainbow Children > Review" at AllMusic. Retrieved 16 September 2011.
  4. ↑ Weingarten, Marc (November 23, 2001). "The Rainbow Children (2001)". Entertainment Weekly . Archived from the original on April 21, 2009.
  5. ↑ Price, Simon (April 22, 2016). "Prince: every album rated – and ranked". The Guardian . Retrieved March 31, 2025.
  6. ↑ A sprawling, instrumentally dazzling work which all but spurns pop songwriting. [Jan 2002, p.99]
  7. ↑ His most consistent work since 1991's Diamonds And Pearls, although you'll need to ignore the peculiar narrative episodes in order to fully enjoy it. [Jan 2002, p.106]
  8. ↑ Berger, Arion (January 2, 2002). "Prince: The Rainbow Children". Rolling Stone . ISSN   0035-791X . Retrieved September 16, 2011.
  9. ↑ Cinquemani, Sal (November 21, 2001). "Prince: The Rainbow Children". Slant . Retrieved September 16, 2011.
  10. ↑ The music, such as it is, is a river of fat-free, dirt-free, melody-free jazz Olestra. [Feb 2002, p.112]
  11. ↑ Hull, Tom (n.d.). "Rock (1970s)". tomhull.com. Retrieved July 1, 2020.
  12. ↑ The music, though lithe and limber in a jazz-fusion-funk bag, lacks melodic distinction, while the vocals are delivered in a variety of electronically treated styles that are irritating at first and increasingly so on repeated exposures. [Feb 2002, p.125]
  13. ↑ Christman, Ed, "Retail Track: Purple Brain", Billboard, August 4, 2007
  14. ↑ Johnson, Cecilia (November 20, 2016). "Cbabi Bayoc and Prince's "The Rainbow Children" cover art". The Current. Minnesota Public Radio.
  15. ↑ "Lescharts.com – Prince – The Rainbow Children". Hung Medien. Retrieved May 2, 2016.
  16. ↑ "Swisscharts.com – Prince – The Rainbow Children". Hung Medien. Retrieved May 2, 2016.
  17. ↑ "Prince Chart History (Billboard 200)". Billboard. Retrieved May 2, 2016.
  18. ↑ "Prince Chart History (Independent Albums)". Billboard. Retrieved July 3, 2022.
  19. ↑ "Austriancharts.at – Prince – The Rainbow Children" (in German). Hung Medien. Retrieved June 11, 2020.
  20. ↑ "Dutchcharts.nl – Prince – The Rainbow Children" (in Dutch). Hung Medien. Retrieved June 5, 2020.
  21. ↑ "Top Albums (Week 23, 2020)" (in French). Syndicat National de l'Édition Phonographique. Retrieved June 8, 2020.
  22. ↑ "Offiziellecharts.de – Prince – The Rainbow Children" (in German). GfK Entertainment Charts. Retrieved June 5, 2020.
  23. ↑ "Official Scottish Albums Chart Top 100". Official Charts Company. Retrieved June 5, 2020.
  24. ↑ "Swisscharts.com – Prince – The Rainbow Children". Hung Medien. Retrieved June 10, 2020.

Further reading

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