When it was announced that Mariah Carey would release a new album in 1999 many fans were surprised because Mariah needed something new and fresh after her greatest hits album #1's debuted in 1998 and so when the Rainbow album was released the single Heartbreaker became a smash hit. But I think the Rainbow album was the start of a new image for Mariah Carey because if you listen to the album I think it ranks as one of Mariah Carey's weakest albums. For instance if you listen to the ballad After Tonight you'll notice it's a copy of the song My All from the Butterfly album and I can't believe Mariah teamed up with Diane Warren and David Foster to do this song and I think it should've been a hit. Another odd thing Mariah did on this album was a cover of Phil Collins's hit Against All Odds and I cannot see how it became a hit song from the Rainbow album even with a version with boy band Westlife couldn't save it from being a hit. Two other songs I noticed on Rainbow which are copies from the Butterfly album is a ballad named Petals and the title track because when you hear the intro of Petals you'll notice it sounds like the title track of the Butterfly album and the title song Rainbow should've been a whole song and not just a interlude and it uses the same music as Petals. I think Mariah was more interested in getting big names on her album to boost her popularity at the time because the only reason the song Thank God I Found You became a hit was because 98 Degrees and singer Joe appeared on the song and Mariah must've given those artists big money to appear in the song

I think out of all the Mariah Carey albums Rainbow ranks as one of Mariah's least selling albums because it seemed that Mariah Carey wanted to go for an R&B sound and leaving the pop sound behind because if you listen to the Rainbow album it is mostly an R&B based album and has few pop songs. Another thing I can't figure out is why the song Can't Take That Away From Me is dubbed "Mariah's Theme"? Did Mariah use this song as opening music for her concerts or is it a tribute to her career? The other thing about this album is that the cover is odd and I don't know who came up with the cover idea for Rainbow but the cover is weird to me

I think the problem many Mariah Carey fans had with Rainbow was that they expected the album to sound like her 1993 album Music Box but after she released the Daydream album in 1995 that album was the start of Mariah's R&B image and sound because you'll notice the same thing with the Butterfly album too. But with Rainbow Mariah Carey was trying to appeal to R&B fans and gain spots on R&B radio stations as well. But they should've had a better cover design for Rainbow in my eyes and made Mariah look really nice but that cover photo as I mentioned doesn't seem right to me