The Rainbow Children is the twenty-fourth studio album

Studio album

A studio album is an album made up of tracks recorded in the controlled environment of a recording studio. A studio album contains newly written and recorded or previously unreleased or remixed material, distinguishing itself from a compilation or reissue album of previously recorded material, or...

 by Prince

Prince (musician)

Prince Rogers Nelson , often known simply as Prince, is an American singer, songwriter, musician, and actor. Prince has produced ten platinum albums and thirty Top 40 singles during his career. Prince founded his own recording studio and label; writing, self-producing and playing most, or all, of...

, released in 2001. It was also released through Prince's website earlier in the year. It is the first album released outside of the NPG Music Club

NPG Music Club

NPG Music Club was an official website of Prince. Prince won a Webby Lifetime Achievement Award for the site in 2006. The site was launched at Studio 54 nightclub.Membership was either $7.77 for Basic Monthly access or $100 for a premium annual membership...

 to be released under the name of Prince again, as he had reverted back to his previous stage name from his symbolic moniker a year earlier.

This concept album

Concept album

In music, a concept album is an album that is "unified by a theme, which can be instrumental, compositional, narrative, or lyrical." Commonly, concept albums tend to incorporate preconceived musical or lyrical ideas rather than being improvised or composed in the studio, with all songs contributing...

 illustrates common Prince themes of spirituality

Spirituality

Spirituality can refer to an ultimate or an alleged immaterial reality; an inner path enabling a person to discover the essence of his/her being; or the “deepest values and meanings by which people live.” Spiritual practices, including meditation, prayer and contemplation, are intended to develop...

 and human sexuality

Human sexuality

Human sexuality is the awareness of gender differences, and the capacity to have erotic experiences and responses. Human sexuality can also be described as the way someone is sexually attracted to another person whether it is to opposite sexes , to the same sex , to either sexes , or not being...

, as well as love and racism

Racism

Racism is the belief that inherent different traits in human racial groups justify discrimination. In the modern English language, the term "racism" is used predominantly as a pejorative epithet. It is applied especially to the practice or advocacy of racial discrimination of a pernicious nature...

, through the fictitious story of a social movement

Social movement

Social movements are a type of group action. They are large informal groupings of individuals or organizations focused on specific political or social issues, in other words, on carrying out, resisting or undoing a social change....

 toward a Martin Luther King, Jr.

Martin Luther King, Jr.

Martin Luther King, Jr. was an American clergyman, activist, and prominent leader in the African-American Civil Rights Movement. He is best known for being an iconic figure in the advancement of civil rights in the United States and around the world, using nonviolent methods following the...

-inspired utopian society. The album seems to allude to his recent conversion to the Jehovah's Witnesses

Jehovah's Witnesses

Jehovah's Witnesses is a millenarian restorationist Christian denomination with nontrinitarian beliefs distinct from mainstream Christianity. The religion reports worldwide membership of over 7 million adherents involved in evangelism, convention attendance of over 12 million, and annual...

 religion, but Egyptian monotheism and New Age

New Age

The New Age movement is a Western spiritual movement that developed in the second half of the 20th century. Its central precepts have been described as "drawing on both Eastern and Western spiritual and metaphysical traditions and then infusing them with influences from self-help and motivational...

 concepts such as the Akashic records

Akashic Records

The akashic records is a term used in theosophy to describe a compendium of mystical knowledge encoded in a non-physical plane of existence. These records are described as containing all knowledge of human experience and the history of the cosmos...

 are used as metaphors as well. Jazz

Jazz

Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...

ier than any of his previous efforts, fan reaction was divided when this album was released. Some fans saw the album as a musical and spiritual evolution for Prince.

Musically, The Rainbow Children marked a shift towards a more "organic" sound for Prince. Unlike its predecessors, the album featured live drums, and made ample use of horns. Many songs were performed live during Prince's 2002 One Nite Alone...Tour, which became an instant success with fans and critics alike.

The Rainbow Children was released through the independent distributor, Redline Entertainment, and has sold 158,000 copies in U.S. stores as of summer 2007.

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

MP3

MPEG-1 or MPEG-2 Audio Layer III, more commonly referred to as MP3, is a patented digital audio encoding format using a form of lossy data compression...

 downloads.

Track listing

1. "Rainbow Children" – 10:03
2. "Muse 2 the Pharaoh" – 4:21
3. "Digital Garden" – 4:07
4. "The Work, pt. 1
   The Work, pt. 1
   "The Work, pt. 1" is a song written by Prince in 2001 and the debut single for his album The Rainbow Children. The song is an homage to James Brown in both the delivery and title . The track features Prince performing in falsetto and backing vocals by Kip Blackshire and girl group Milenia.The...
   
   " – 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 hidden track - 0:04
16. Untitled hidden track - 0:04
17. Untitled hidden track - 0:04
18. Untitled hidden track - 0:04
19. Untitled hidden track - 0:04
20. Untitled hidden track - 0:08
21. Untitled hidden track - 0:38
    • Tracks 15-21 are all hidden tracks and are all silent with the exception of track 21, which gradually fades in to the repetition of the word "one" being sung repeatedly.