Customer Reviews

Rainbow

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The full story of why this was recorded in only three months appears in the September 2007 issue of "Interview" magazine. In an interview with Ingrid Sischy, she talks about how she wanted to bang out the records after the divorce just to fulfill the rest of her contract. Excerpts can probably be found on one of Mimi's fan sites.

Personally, I find this recording to be cute, lighthearted and "pop". These are "block party" songs to me, and I had plenty of those when I was a kid! What did you expect from our girl? She's eternally 12!

"Bliss" is the most interesting track. The notes are up there, and stay up there. Honestly, some critics may think this sound is bizarre, but if you could sing that high? Wouldn't you? So stop complaining.

It's a fun album. It's not 'Emancipation' or 'E=MC2', but worth a spin. I popped it in my iTunes and sing along when I'm sorting laundry or zipping thru my apartment, cleaning, cooking or puttering. It's gentle background filler that puts me in a good mood. Not every recording has to be emotional glory, salvation, gloom or doom.

I'd give it a B+.

This definitely isn't her strongest work, but this CD will always have a special place in my heart because it was my first CD of hers that I owned. It was going to go in the trash or something until I took it off of someone's hands and I'm glad I did!

The best songs here are probably:

Against All Odds (Take A Look At Me Now) An excellent cover, IMHO (in my honest opinion)
Crybaby
Can't Take That Away (Mariah's Theme)
Petals
Thank God I Found You

She doesn't overdo it with special guests here. I mean there are 4 but I think that it was still balanced enough to not drag the album down. I wouldn't fully recommend this over some of her other CDs though. Buy the following ones before this one:

Daydream
The Emancipation Of Mimi

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Cover Art: A
Inside Art: A+
Songwriting: A-
Vocals: B-
Vocal Emotion: B-
Vocal Acrobatics: A-

4.5 stars.

Overall: A

Mariah has admitted she recorded this album in only three months, and it certainly sounds that way. Most of Rainbow is derivative and contrived: "Heartbreaker" is a weaker version of "Fantasy" with Jay-Z added to freshen the mix; "Can't Take That Away" is powerful, but it's a blatant attempt to recreate "Hero." Similarly, "Thank God I Found You" is an updated "One Sweet Day" without the insightful lyrics. 98 Degrees replaces Boyz II Men here; Mariah was clearly trying to fit in with the dominating teen-pop scene. Worst of all, "Did I Do That?" is simply Silkk The Shocker's already bad "It Ain't My Fault" with new vocals. Most of Rainbow's other tracks likewise fall short. "Bliss," sung almost entirely in Mariah's high-pitched whistle range, can only be described as bizarre. Easily one of the worst songs she has ever recorded, it is virtually unlistenable. "X-Girlfriend," with its juvenile lyrics and skittering beat, was a poor attempt to duplicate the popular Destiny's Child sound. It's a shame Mariah and co-producer/co-writer Walter Afanasieff had a falling out. His absence is sorely felt here. In his place we have Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis of Flyte Tyme. Though they are one of the greatest musician and production teams of all time, they simply do not mesh with Mariah's sound. On the flip side, "Against All Odds" (Yes, it's her third `80s cover in as many albums) is excellent, outdoing even Phil Collins' original thanks to Mariah's emotional vocal performance. The haunting "Petals" features the most personal lyrics of her career and easily could have been on the fantastic Butterfly album. "How Much," which samples liberally from 2Pac, works well as a vocal duet with Usher. Mariah has an uncanny ability to switch from adult contemporary pop to urban R&B and Hip-Hop. That is also her undoing. Ultimately, the collaboration-heavy Rainbow is a good album by most standards and includes a few great songs, but it's a lazy effort for Mariah, whose formula was beginning to wear thin. 3 Stars.

Length:: 1:58 Mins

I could not give this album the full five stars but I still enjoy it. Her vocals may be her best ever but some of the guests get under my skin. "Heartbreaker ft Jay-Z'' is good. A modern classic I might add. The music is alright and it is an enjoyable listen although I have to skip thru some of the songs a bit more than her other albums. I still recommend it though. "Bliss" just has to be heard to be believed. The vocal range is unreal! "Crybaby" has cool keyboarding in it. It isn't to expensive so I recommend picking it up.

this is a personal album but one of my favorites, this album was one of the best by mariah, her songs are heartbreaker and cant take that away, and of course the remake of against all odds, but my favorite is Cant take that away, and the reason why i love this song so much is because it gives me alot of hope, it makes me feel good about myself, this songs i believe is really for different people, I am gay and i dont always get accepted, but i do love this song, and the whole album, so if u know ur different or struggling with something, but this album for sure, it helps u deal with it in a great way, i love you mariah, must own

I don't really get why she put some rejected Destiny's Child songs on here. "X-Girlfriend" is a little teenager song that I don't like. This album is a solid 4 stars. I think that her vocals were still impressive on this album. With the song "Bliss" during the chorus/hook, she sings it in high notes. That's actually my favorite song on this album. Anyway, if you're a Mariah fan, then buy it.

This album will always have a special place for me, simply because it was my very first Mariah album. I had liked her previous songs when they came on the radio, particularly the ones from her Daydream album, but it wasn't until Rainbow that I actually bought the CD, in a very auspicious move. This was the first album I owned (from ANY artist) where I liked more than just the singles released from it. I don't understand why a lot of Mariah fans don't seem so receptive to this album. It offers a variety of music stylings, something for everyone really, tied together by her superb vocals.

She cranked this entire album out in only 3 months, but even so, especially considering that short amount of time spent crafting it, the album is still pretty strong. The liner says that there is a story attached to the series of songs. I'm not sure that the lineup of songs really amounts to an entire plotline, but the songs seem cohesive enough when taken as an entire album, admirable considering the aforementioned variety of musical styles represented here.

Some of the highlights:

"Bliss" - this is either a love-it or hate-it track due to copious whistle-register content. I've loved it since I first heard it. It is all about Mariah's voice harmonizing with itself, softly and loudly, smoothly speaking the lyrics "on and on" throughout the entire song. It's not a lyric-heavy song; the focus is completely on the delivery and the singing and the sensuality. What wins this one over for me is the crescendos (symbolic climaxes) built into the end part of the song. It IS an unusual song, but given a chance, it is a brilliant sound. Which is why it appears on that new "Best of Mariah Carey" release from Sony.

"Against All Odds" - She made me like a Phil Collins song with an entirely different vocal interpretation than he had in his original version. And I really don't like any of his songs. Enough said.

"Heartbreaker Remix" - This one is better than the original, and it is far enough into the album (and different enough from the first track with Missy Elliot and Da Brat accompaniment) that it does not sound redundant.

"Petals" - Mariah can be very creative with her imagery when she's writing introspective lyrics. She doesn't need to show off her vocal range to get her point across beautifully. That's what I love about this song.

The CD also is a little different from her prior offerings due to the fact that she also includes a couple of bridge interludes, really song-fragments, which are beautiful in and of themselves.

If you already have a few Mariah albums, then definitely include this one as well. However, if you don't have any albums from her, definitely start with some of her other albums. And then include this one. It may not be her strongest album ever, but it is still good if given half a chance.

Has the classic song Heartbreaker with Jay-Z & many other timeless songs! A must buy for any Mariah fan & was definitely the best album of 1999!

Mariah Carey certainly had more than a fair output during her first decade as a recording artist and her previous album Butterfly was one of the better albums she's ever made. Almost since the moment this album came out I've heard that it was an uneven album,mostly because of the heavy hip-hop influence on it. Whether anyone liked it or not hip-hop had become the mainstream of music by this time and the sound of the music with R&B had more or less settled into where it still is today. Even with the heavy contemporary hip-hop/R&B touch (and yes it's still very contemporary today) this album along with it's predecessor is actually one of Mariah's strongest overall. Not only is Mariah utilizing the full range of her signiture vocal leaps for once but the power with which she uses to interpet these tunes,even the uptempo ones is wonderful. These are very much songs about the general romance of life,between two people or even with the world itself as she was approching 30 and even though it obviously has a definate personel backround to it there are a lot of people in the same place,during the same era who could relate to this. The rainbow metaphore was especially fitting as so much of the general youth culture of the 90's was based on some form of negativity;it was only fitting Mariah would look to one thing that was always colorful as a path to the future. "Heartbreaker" with Jay Z and it's remix with Missy Elliot are really well done funk/hip-hop tunes with a heavy pop bounce although the airiness of Mariah's approch just doesn't provide the right contrast with Jay Z and Missy' harsher delivery-that's my only real criticism on the hop-hop end. "Can't Take That Away" is a powerful gospel inflected ballad in which Mariah belts out the song with the strengh and power of her early 90's material and excerises her range as a singer to the full degree. "Bliss" just plain has a Minnie Ripperton-like Heavenly atmosphere as Mariah is heard chirping vocally right along with the bird sounds in the backround;the song sounds like a dewey and sunny afternoon in a flowery garden. The only tune here I can't say I'm crazy about is "How Much" with Usher;it just isn't destinctive enough musically to make it interesting. Songs such as "After Tonight","X-Girlfriend","Against All Odds" and "Crybaby" (with Snoop Dog) are the better of the hip-hop inflected songs as the rhythms are very well layered and the midtempo nature of these songs of course serve to make them funkier,breezier and more suited to Mariah's style as far as rhythmic songs go. Same goes for "Petals" and "Did I Do That?". There's also a decent cover of Phil Collins' "Look At Me Now" which is okay but doesn't do much to alter the effect of the original. The album concludes with the epic "Thank God I Found You" with guest vocals from Joe and 98 degrees. One of the major pitfulls with Mariah Carey is people get caught up in pondering how THEY think she SHOULD sound as opposed to who she IS and in terms of the latter this album,despite some occasionally intrusive guest hip-hoppers, showcases a very well rounded display of her musical identity