Ayumi Hamasaki - Rainbow
List Price:
Our Price: $28.00
You Save: $36.99 (57%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Buy Used: from $10.99 (click here)
Category: Music CD
See more CD details
Buy this Music CD at online store in your country
Canadian Music Store
Canadian Music Store
CD Details
Artist: Ayumi HamasakiEdition: Music CD
Audio: English (Unknown)
Format: Import
Published: 2002-12-18
CD Release Date: 2002-12-18
Music Label: Avex Trax Japan
Soundtracks:
- Rainbow
- Everlasting Dream
- We Wish
- Real Me
- Free And Easy
- Heartplace
- Over
- Hanabi
- Taskinillusion
- Everywhere Nowhere
- July 1st
- Dolls
- Neverending Dream
- Voyage
- Close To You
- Independent
Music reviews of Rainbow
Music Review: Ayu's RAINBOW to subliminal fufillment!...
Rating: 5 Stars
J-pop empress Ayumi Hamasaki (whose first name is a Japanese kanji character meaning Walking or Pacing forward) reached her apex in musical output and sales during the era leading to and post the release of her fifth Japanese original studio LP Rainbow, which first appeared on shelves December 12, 2002 under a year after the phenomenal 'I AM..." (that included 7 #1 smashes, her best performance ever in total album and spawned singles sales). While Ayumi doesn't have the best vocal abilities or most acclaimed compositions among her other major female J-pop peers (Utada Hikaru,Shiina Ringo & Misia), her reassuring and self-entitled gift for lyrical writing and inspiring 'rags to riches' life story has made her a contemporary living legend in the Japanese and now Asian-wide conscious on the musical, fashion, and public endorsement fronts. This album tapered off at 1.8 million units, meaning it was her first since 1999's Loveppears to NOT break multi-platinum (2 million plus) in Japan, but nevertheless stands as the 89th best-selling musical recording ever released domestically there; Although this effort has been criticized by her more ardent fans of her previous work to it, let the objective assimilation go that RAINBOW is Ayu's most comfortably experimental and diverse album that will earnestly reward those who repeatedly listen and can look past some of its more minimal shortcomings. Its also her first to incorparate English lyrics and phrasing into her discography (another BIG plus for her international fans)!
All three singles prior to the album's release show Ayu in top form both as a lyricist and producer/composer of her own discography under the pseudonym CREA, while collaborating with DAI of Do As Infinity, another prominent J-pop act. ''Free & Easy" was an epic orchestra/alternative mid-tempo that would become the first of her (as of writing) 23 consecutive #1 hits, a record that only her idol in Seiko Matsuda has bested with 24 (let history inversely show she has already accumulated the most #1's for any solo or group artist with 35!); "H" her final million selling single that became the #1 release on Oricon's Year End Ranks for 2002, featured three A-sides: the rollicking hip-hop spiced ballad HANABI (trnls. FIREWORKS), the pulsing pop/rock dance jam (JULY 1st) and the audience hand clapping anthem "INDEPENDENT;" Finally was the coming-of-age love flagship that was 'Voyage', her last single to top the singles chart three total times and second to win her a Japan Record Award for Song of the Year 2003 (she'd win it in 2002 for DEAREST and in 2004 for NO WAY TO SAY). Freedom, struggles of women, and 'a summer that ends in sadness' dominated the album's interpretive themes, and it includes "summery,up-tempo, and grand gothic" songs mixed with rock/pop/trance influences that simply cannot be missed for anyone being first introduced to Ayu (start with A BEST, her greatest hits compilation), but as far as an organic piece from one of the true J-pop greats, START HERE with Ayumi's mystifying, dreamy, and altogether beautiful RAINBOW, its a sight to behold for music and j-pop enthusiasts everywhere!
Description of Rainbow
Ayumi Hamasaki's 5th album includes the million selling hit 'H', 'Free And Easy' and more. Avex. 2002.International CDs
Music Genres
Bestsellers in International CDs
Hopscotch - Wishful WayRelease date: 2003-11-03; Music CD
Price in other shops:
![Coral Sea Dreaming [VHS] Image](/images/noimg.gif)
David Hannan - Coral Sea Dreaming [VHS]Compass Records; Release date: 1998-11-17; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Best price: $6.25
Price in other shops:
![20th Anniversary Celebration [VHS] Image](/images/20th-Anniversary-Celebration-VHS-6302274060-X.jpg){kind=small}
Steeleye Span - 20th Anniversary Celebration [VHS]Shanachie; Release date: 1995-04-16; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Best price: $5.94
Price in other shops:
Chris Rea - Return of the Fabulous Hofner BluenotesRelease date: 2008-03-11; Music CD
Best price: $38.91
Price in other shops:
A Concert Of Angels mini: Music From J.S. Bach To Gustav Mahlerby edel Classics GmbH
Edel Classica Gmbh; Published: 2006-11-06; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $9.13
Price in other shops:
Tanzkurs Vol. 4 - Rumba & Cha Cha ChaRelease date: 2007-06-08; DVD
Best price: $10.91
Price in other shops:
Sascha Hehn & The New Symphonic Orchestra - Peter Und Der Wolf/ Karneval Der TiereRelease date: 2010-04-27; Music CD
Best price: $5.00
Price in other shops:
Jurgen Fritsche, Sven Gortz - Edgar Allan Poe: Das Grauen IIRelease date: 2009-12-08; Music CD
Best price: $6.30
Price in other shops:
Sorene. CD. Kinderlieder aus Äthiopien - Children's Songs from Ethiopiaby Peter Pannke
Sunnymoon Distribution; Published: 2000-03-01; Audio CD; Book
Tibetan Meditation Music: For Quiet Mind and Peaceful Heartby Nawang Khechog
Soundstrue; Sounds True 2007-04-01; Published: 2007; Audio CD; Book
Best price: $0.98
Similar CDs
Hikaru Utada - Deep RiverRelease date: 2002-10-21; Music CD
Best price: $29.99
Utada - This Is The OneRelease date: 2009-05-12; Music CD
Best price: $6.98
Price in other shops:
Ayumi Hamasaki - Memorial AddressRelease date: 2003-12-29; Music CD
Best price: $45.98
Price in other shops:
![A song for XX [IMPORT] Image](/images/A-song-for-XX-IMPORT-B00000JCVE-X.jpg)
Ayumi Kamasaki - A song for XX [IMPORT]Release date: 1999-05-19; Music CD
Best price: $39.99
Price in other shops:
Ayumi Hamasaki - SecretRelease date: 2006-12-11; Music CD
Best price: $52.04
Price in other shops:
Ayumi Hamasaki - My StoryRelease date: 2005-03-28; Music CD
Best price: $39.99
Price in other shops:
Ayumi Hamasaki - (Miss) UnderstoodRelease date: 2005-01-03; Music CD
Best price: $55.00
Price in other shops:
Ayumi Hamasaki - I AmRelease date: 2004-10-27; Music CD
Best price: $17.78
Price in other shops:
Ayumi Hamasaki - DutyRelease date: 2000-09-27; Music CD
Best price: $47.16
Price in other shops:
Ayumi Hamasaki - Guilty (Limited Edition with DVD and Photobook)Release date: 2008-01-01; Music CD
Best price: $60.88