I love TRC, in fact it is on my CD walkman as we speak (slow day at the office). I think you're right SuperiorTe, the music is amazing (except Wedding feast...) and some of the songs on here are among my favourites (Muse 2 the Pharoah).

I can see why people don't warm to it though. The religious overtones are difficult to relate to and the whole Rainbow Children story throughout is, dare I say it, a bit pretentious and pointless...

The sound of the album, i admit, is amazing. You can hear
all the bubbling influences and the way it leans heavily
on jazz. I like that kind of music and about 50% of my cd
collection consists out of jazz music.

But eventho it leans on jazz here and there, it is imo NOT
a jazz album by far. It's Prince's usual mish and mash of
funk, rock, r&b and others as well as the jazz influence.

The fact that he managed to make such a cohesive album after
lesser and uninspired sounding albums like NPS and RAVE is
something that kept me interested in Prince this past year
since I am really anxious to hear more stuff done in this
way.

The only reason I don't listen to the album as much as I
would like to is -still- the lyrical content. And that has
nothing to do with being grown-up or not. It's just a bit
too blunt for my taste.

I can deal with talk of wise ones, the fall, and people in
subjection to their one true god. What I can not stomach
however, is the 'accurate knowledge of christ and the father
will bring the everlasting now' and 'in the name of the
father, in the name of the son we need to come together as
one' chorus of respectively "Everlasting Now" and "Last
December". They're both standout fine tunes and the guitar
on last december is something else. But the lyrics are just
silly. If he'd thought about them some more and taken time
to formulate them a bit differently, the album would be
without flaw [for me].

Heck, I even really like the narrator on the album. And the
'song' Weddingfeast. It's just a slight breeze intended to
make that last 20 minutes of the album a bit lighter.

I know everyone is entitled to their own opinion but the fact that we acknowledge the idea of "quality" at all renders some peoples' opinion more than valuable than others. That's why we have critics and that's why Celine Dion or Mariah Carey isn't the source of the best music despite their obviously huge followings

Now I know I've posted about this album before, but really, I just can't understand why some people don't like The Rainbow Children. Maybe some of u can help me.

TAKE THE CD OUT, PLACE ON FLOOR AND JUMP UP & DOWN ON CD SINGING PURPLE RAIN, PURPLE RAIN

I just feel like if u have some knowledge and appreciation for jazz, soul and funk through music history u will appreciate the excellent playing on this record.

ITS PRETENTIOUS, NOT ONLY LYRICALLY BUT MUSICALLY AND IF U CANT SEE THAT THEN PERHAPS U DON'T HAVE MUSICAL KNOWLEDGE AND APPERCIATION

Prince's voice sounds as good as ever and as well as being a well played, "grown-up" record for fans of good music, TRC also sounds like it was fun to make. It has a child's heart.

OK, OK... HIS VOICE ALWAYS SOUNDS GREAT THO... THATS WHAT MAKES PRINCE DIFFERENT / BETTER THAN ANYONE ELSE


What could possibly make a Prince fan enjoy some of the generic processed-beat-laden R&B Prince made in the early 90s more than TRC?

LIKE WHAT???
WILLING AND ABLE
THUNDER
AND GOD CREATED WOMEN
7
THIEVES IN THE TEMPLE
THE ? OF U
JOY IN REPETITION

THESE ARE ALL EARLY 90'S PRINCE STUFF AND WIPE THE FLOOR WITH RAINBOW CHILDREN

If u love good music u HAVE to love this record surely?

THE PRETENTIOUS OF THE RECORD IS SO MIND-BOGGLINGLY HUGE THAT IT EVEN STOPS ME LISTENING TO 'THE WORK'

I know everyone is entitled to their own opinion but the fact that we acknowledge the idea of "quality" at all renders some peoples' opinion more than valuable than others. That's why we have critics and that's why Celine Dion or Mariah Carey isn't the source of the best music despite their obviously huge followings.

MARIAH CAREY IS FANTASTIC... AND I DON'T OWN A SINGLE RECORD OF HERS... IF U KNOW WHAT I MEAN

CELINE DION WILL PAY FOR THAT TITLE TRACK FROM TITANIC... MAYBE NOT IN THIS LIFE ... BUT SOMETIME...

I'd hypothesise that it's some of the younger fans on the whole that don't like TRC while the more mature music listener with a broader music knowledge would at least appreciate the album, if not always love it like I do.

YOUR HYPOTHESIS IS WRONG...
ALL THE PRINCE FANS I KNOW THINK ITS A TERRIBLE ALBUM .. ALONG WITH RAVE AND CHAOS
WE ARE ALL OVER 26 AND SOME OF US ARE EXCELLENT MUSICIANS WITH A VERY DIVERSE TASTE...

What do u think?

musically, the rainbow children is fine - quite fresh sounding, actually

but the religious overtones are overbearing as hell and actually make me resent prince. I have a strong Christian faith, yet I can hardly stand to listen to Christian radio stations - because it's not really art, it's promotion for the masses. That's fine for them but I can tell the difference.

One thing I've always dug about Kravitz is he could mix art and religious themes really well. Nobody bitched about 'Believe' when it was on MTV, even though he talks specifically about "The Son of God". I appreciate Lenny remembering the songs first, the reason you bought the damn record in the first place.

Rudy said:

I just don't think it gets in the way. I used to feel bad about listening to some Prince songs that were so sexy and never turned it up loud. It was embarrassing for me to listen to that and it made me not like the tracks. I'm not Christian but TRC isnt a problem for me. The passion in his voice are enough to get me into it.

How about Marvin Gaye? Do u feel the same way when u listen to Wholy Holy or God Is Love? It's sung from the heart and why not talk about it since it's a big part of a Christian's life?

I'm glad he has something passionate to sing about.

I'd hypothesise that it's some of the younger fans on the whole that don't like TRC while the more mature music listener with a broader music knowledge would at least appreciate the album, if not always love it like I do.

What do u think?

SuperiorTe said:

I think u're wrong and u need not generalize.U can listen to Mariah Carey or Celine Dion at any age as well as u can listen to Prince at 12.It's a matter of sensibility and maturity.However I'm 19 and TRC is one of my favorite albums even tho I don't consider myself really mature
Now run and tell your mama about that!

although of course I would certainly say compared to the average 12 year old my opinion would be more valid.

adoreme said:

Why?

SuperiorTe said:

Because the average 12 year old hasn't listened to enough music to know what is good and bad, so much.

It's like judging fruit if u'd only ever eaten apples.

Some people are better equipped to judge. This goes for everything and we tend to accept this system. If not we really would believe that the most popular artist was artistically the best.

And we don't think that do we?

adoreme said:

Why?

why don't u like TRC?
quote]

see my post above!

I think a look at the CD collections of some orgers would provide many answers to my questions.

Some people just have poor taste and judgment.

The sound of the album, i admit, is amazing. You can hear
all the bubbling influences and the way it leans heavily
on jazz. I like that kind of music and about 50% of my cd
collection consists out of jazz music.

But eventho it leans on jazz here and there, it is imo NOT
a jazz album by far. It's Prince's usual mish and mash of
funk, rock, r&b and others as well as the jazz influence.

The fact that he managed to make such a cohesive album after
lesser and uninspired sounding albums like NPS and RAVE is
something that kept me interested in Prince this past year
since I am really anxious to hear more stuff done in this
way.

The only reason I don't listen to the album as much as I
would like to is -still- the lyrical content. And that has
nothing to do with being grown-up or not. It's just a bit
too blunt for my taste.

I can deal with talk of wise ones, the fall, and people in
subjection to their one true god. What I can not stomach
however, is the 'accurate knowledge of christ and the father
will bring the everlasting now' and 'in the name of the
father, in the name of the son we need to come together as
one' chorus of respectively "Everlasting Now" and "Last
December". They're both standout fine tunes and the guitar
on last december is something else. But the lyrics are just
silly. If he'd thought about them some more and taken time
to formulate them a bit differently, the album would be
without flaw [for me].

Heck, I even really like the narrator on the album. And the
'song' Weddingfeast. It's just a slight breeze intended to
make that last 20 minutes of the album a bit lighter.

The rainbow children sucks except for one or two tracks.

Jazz-fusion music is the enemy. It's done by musicians for other musicians just to show how good they are at their instruments. The occasional glimpses of funk that the album has sounds dated- i.e. the work, everlasting now. I think prince should focus more on writing great songs instead of being so preoccupied with his musicianship. what's up with "the real music by real musicians" bullshit. Prince is at his best when he strips down the arrangements of the songs. He used to be a minimalist now his songs sounds more like "Queen goes funk" than "Sly stone with great melodies" and that's tragic. He should have an implant that gives him an electric shock everytime a solo is too long or the arrangements are too boombastic.

Fire the NPG and hire a drum machine as backing band. That's my advice.