

When you listen to Rainbow it starts off as one album, then turns into something different in the middle, and then becomes something different three songs from the end. The album features three instrumental songs placed as an intro and two interludes which segment the album; but this feels like a cheap attempt to block the three parts of the album, as opposed to actually better unifying them. And it also doesnât help that the instrumental songs themselves, whilst good, also feel like theyâre part of a different concept altogether. Itâs like somebody just slapped in some pieces of music from Final Fantasy XIII-2. (Yes, I know Final Fantasy XIII-2 came out after Rainbow. But this is me reviewing the album in 2021. Also, Final Fantasy XIII-2 is a game centred on time travel, so letâs just go with it). Something about the sequencing of this album just feels off, but there's also something about this selection of songs. No matter how you re-order the songs, they just donât work together to create this top to bottom listening experience.
The approach to how Rainbow is structured KINDA makes sense when you link it to the album title and the subject matters of the songs themselves - each of which focuses on the journey of bearing pain before you can truly appreciate love for yourself and others: through the rain, to the sunlight, and then the rainbow. But the way the album places clear segments partitions the album in a really unnecessary way. Thereâs not the same elegance that we got on Mariahâs album of the same title, with the sequencing of âPetalsâ, âRainbow (Interlude)â and âThank God I Found Youâ.
Buggered sequencing is something that plagues many J-Pop albums, because of how albums in Japan come together. Albums donât start as albums, but as a string of singles, which are recorded with the intent of being singles. Then 6 singles in 'OH. TIME TO RELEASE AN ALBUM' and then 5 or so songs are recorded to make it up. So it often means that album concepts go clean out of the window, because they may only apply to the 4-5 songs on an album which werenât singles. So then youâve got 8 songs with completely different sounds and themes. I feel this is part of what happened to Rainbow. And itâs something that Ayu albums such as Next Level, Rock ânâ Roll Circus and Party Queen got fucked over by. So a bitch clearly didnât learn her lesson.


Ayumi Hamasakiâs voice truly is an acquired taste. But she gives me something on Rainbow that she doesnât often give. Harmonies. Hearing Ayu lace choruses with two and sometimes three point harmonies gives the choruses across this album a fuller sound. And whilst hearing four Ayuâs sing simultaneously sounds like a recipe for disaster, vertigo and tinnitus, the blend actually takes the edge off. But Ayuâs singing style and technique still isnât great. And something which is highlighted on the song âIndependentâ is that Ayu is not good with ad-libs at all. Her go toâs are always â« La La La â«âs which are not only basic, but with her style of singing, it sounds like drunken karaoke.

The only thing worse than an album thatâs bad is one thatâs just overwhelmingly safe and unremarkable, and this is Rainbow. The songs on it are fine. The only songs on this album that I skip and would not listen to unless my lactose intolerance depended on it, are âFree & Easyâ and âIndependentâ. Everything else is fine. But thatâs just the problem. The songs should be more than just fine. Rainbow as a whole should have displayed a greater level of growth from Ayu than it does. Ayu didnât try new things or really push herself at the one point in her career and at a point in music where she could and should have. She dipped her toe into something out of her comfort zone for âReal Meâ and then said âCool. Iâm doneâ and it was back to regular Ayu programming from track 4 onward. Ayumi Hamasaki should have been giving so much more than this. Ayuâs peers were all making far bigger moves with their third, fourth and fifth albums.
Rainbow being such a beige album sonically is a shame, because I really like some of the lyrics of the songs. âWe Wishâ being a song about accepting who you really are certainly feels poignant on an album titled Rainbow. And something about the lines â« We are free, but we're too free. We can go everywhere, but can go nowhere â« in âEverywhere Nowhereâ really hit. I donât know if itâs because of me reading that through the lens of a Black guy knowing how these racist ass white people and cops see Black folk, but that line struck me. CâMON AYU CIVILRIGHTSAKI. And âReal Meâ speaking about the personas women have to take on JUST to be able to get by feels as relevant now as it did in 2002. Ayuâs songwriting on this album is good, but the blandness and raggedy arrangements of some of the songs donât do her lyrics justice.
Rainbow just doesnât feel essential. The fact that Ayu recorded an album title track and chose to slap it on a Best release album instead 3 months later was a whole mess and spoke volumes. As an album in Ayuâs discography, Rainbow is just...there. Itâs pleasant enough, but it doesnât bring enough to the table, even though the pieces were RIGHT there and the timing was so right for it to be able to.
Highlights:
â We Wish
â Real Me đ
â Taskinillusion
â Everywhere Nowhere
â Dolls