The Rainbow Children (2001)
1. Rainbow Children
2. Muse 2 the Pharaoh
3. Digital Garden
4. The Work, Pt.1
5. Everywhere
6. The Sensual Hereafter
7. Mellow
8. 1+1+1 is 3
9. Deconstruction
10.Wedding Feast
11.She Loves Me 4 Me
12.Family Name
13.The Everlasting Now
14.Last December
By the time The Rainbow Children arrived in the early 2000s, Prince had already done just about everything an artist could do. He’d reinvented himself a dozen different ways, challenged every label and expectation thrown at him, and released more material than most artists could ever dream of. So what does a guy like that do when he’s already seen the top? He experiments. A lot.
Definitely a heavy “experimental” phase. Bonus CDs, internet-only releases, anonymous side projects, mysterious bootlegs—you name it, he was doing it. So when this one showed up, it was hard to know how seriously we were supposed to take it. I’ll admit right now: I never had the time, patience, or maybe the stamina that some diehard fans say is required to really embrace this thing. I’m not sure many others did either.
It’s clear he was trying something very different here, but different doesn’t always mean better. Prince goes heavy into jazz territory—smooth, light, occasionally meandering jazz—and that’s fine, but he also decides to narrate the album in a deep, robotic, computerized voice that sounds like it was borrowed from a sci-fi movie trailer. It’s incredibly off-putting. Whatever atmosphere the music builds up, this narrator just kills it.
I’m guessing this is supposed to be a concept album. A “story” album of some sort. But what the story is, I couldn’t really tell you. The narration doesn’t clarify things so much as confuse them, and it’s all delivered so heavily that it feels like a lecture. At times you wonder if he was aiming for a Broadway-style musical. Still, if he had just let the music breathe on its own, there might’ve been something to appreciate.
Musically, there are some flashes of brilliance. Most of the album is soft, jazzy, and ambient—certainly a far cry from anything resembling his classic pop/funk eras. The whole thing feels fragmented. Some songs sound like transitions more than actual tracks. It’s hard to tell who’s singing at times, or whether you’re supposed to focus on the music or the strange effects and voices.
There are a couple of highlights, though. 1+1+1=3 is the most distinctly “Prince” moment here. It grooves, it funks, it makes you want to move. It’s also the one track that feels completely out of place—but in the best way. Toward the end, Last December offers another strong cut. It’s a slower, eight-minute track that probably should’ve shown up earlier in the album, because by the time you reach it, you’re too mentally exhausted to fully appreciate it. And again, eight minutes is a lot to ask after this kind of journey.
The Rainbow Children didn’t exactly fly off store shelves, and that’s no real surprise. Between the genre shift, the concept overload, and the strange delivery, it’s more curiosity than classic. Even for the faithful, this one was a tough ask.
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