''Rainbow Ends'' is the fifth and final studio album by
Emitt Rhodes. It was released on 26 February 2016, some 43 years after his previous album, ''
Farewell to Paradise
''Farewell to Paradise'' (1973) is the fourth album by Emitt Rhodes. An eclectic mixture of rock, pop, jazz-funk and soul. Due to the pressure of his record label suing him for his failure to complete his contract for 6 albums in 3 years, many o ...
''.
Background
Album produced by
Chris Price. It features contributions from
Roger Joseph Manning, Jr.
Roger Joseph Manning Jr. (born May 27, 1966) is an American keyboardist, singer, and songwriter who co-founded the bands Jellyfish (band), Jellyfish, the Moog Cookbook, and Imperial Drag. He has also spent several years as a member of Beck's ba ...
,
Jason Falkner,
Nels Cline,
Aimee Mann
Aimee Elizabeth Mann (born September 8, 1960) is an American singer-songwriter. Over the course of four decades, she has released more than a dozen albums as a solo artist and with other musicians. She is noted for her sardonic and literate lyr ...
,
Jon Brion,
Richard Thompson,
Susanna Hoffs
Susanna Lee Hoffs (born January 17, 1959) is an American singer and guitarist, best known as a co-founder of the pop-rock band The Bangles.
Hoffs founded The Bangles (originally called the Bangs) in 1981 with Debbi and Vicki Peterson. They re ...
,
Bleu and members of
Brian Wilson’s band.
The first single, "Dog on a Chain", featuring harmonies by Mann and a solo by Brion was premiered by
The Wall Street Journal
''The Wall Street Journal'' is an American business-focused, international daily newspaper based in New York City, with international editions also available in Chinese and Japanese. The ''Journal'', along with its Asian editions, is published ...
's blog Speakeasy in November 2015.
Track listing
All songs composed by
Emitt Rhodes except when otherwise indicated.
Release and reception
''Rainbow Ends'' has received positive reviews. On the aggregate website
Metacritic
Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...
, the album has received a score of 81 out of a possible 100 with five reviews, indicating "universal acclaim". Mark Deming of
AllMusic
AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databas ...
says it is "a mature, introspective work from a man looking for answers to the questions of life and love, and it's a brave and genuinely impressive return to the spotlight from a major talent."
Hal Horowitz of American Songwriter wrote that the songs on the album are "just a notch below Rhodes’ earlier work and may yet become as well-regarded as those songs." In a 7 out of 10 review for ''
Uncut'', Rob Hughes writes that the album "Rainbow Ends is an intensely personal vision. Indeed, it feels more like a companion piece to his great ’70s work than it does a postscript ..... if it occasionally lapses into self-pity, there’s also a confessional aspect that feels unnervingly candid."
''Rainbow Ends'' debuted on the
Billboard 200
The ''Billboard'' 200 is a record chart ranking the 200 most popular music albums and EPs in the United States. It is published weekly by '' Billboard'' magazine and is frequently used to convey the popularity of an artist or groups of art ...
at No. 150 for the week of March 19, 2016. It also placed at number 27 on the Independent Albums chart and number 46 on the Top Internet Albums chart. It is Rhodes' first charting album since 1971's ''Mirror'', as his following album, 1973's ''Farewell To Paradise'', never charted.
References
{{Authority control
Emitt Rhodes albums
2016 albums
Omnivore Recordings albums