Rainbow (Mariah Carey Album) - Music and Lyrics

Music and Lyrics

"It was from the standpoint of girls who keep going back to the same guy and they can't help themselves. They know they're going to get hurt. I've been one of those girls, so I know there's a lot of them out there."

—Carey, describing the lyrics of "Heartbreaker"

As with Butterfly, songs for Rainbow were chosen to solidify Carey's reputation as a multi-genre artist. Throughout the first phase of her career, Carey's albums predominantly consisted of pop and adult contemporary ballads. Rainbow mixed hip hop and R&B-flavored upbeat songs with softer and lyrically intense ballads resembling those that Carey had previously recorded. "Heartbreaker", Carey's first collaboration with Jay-Z, used a sample from "Attack of the Name Game", recorded by Stacy Lattisaw, as its hook. The loop originated from "The Name Game" by Shirley Ellis; Ellis and co-writer Lincoln Chase are credited as songwriters on the track. Carey incorporated the hook into the song's melody, and added instrumentation. Lyrically, the song chronicles the heartbreak the protagonist feels after learning of her lover's infidelity. "Thank God I Found You" features vocals from Joe and 98 Degrees, as well as songwriting and production from Carey and Lewis. According to Carey, the song reflects on events in her own life at the time, with the lyrics describing the completion the protagonist feels after "finding" their lover. Joe provides the main male vocal throughout each verse, and 98 Degrees sing the background vocals and the bridge.

Prior to the album's recording, Carey and her sister Allison had a falling out in their relationship. Allison had contracted AIDS in 1995, and she blamed Carey for many of her problems and heartbreaks throughout the years. Her children were taken away while she received treatment for AIDS and for mental health issues. Carey wrote a song titled "Petals", which she describes as the most honest lyrics she has ever written. The song tells of Carey's feelings for her sister, while illustrating the pain Allison's betrayal and suffering have caused. In an interview with Bronson, Carey described the meaning of the lyrics of "Petals":

It is a great outlet for me to go into the studio and write a song like 'Petals', which is one of my most personal songs and remains one of my favorites. I think honest lyrics I've ever written. The song chronicles a lot of past emotions I've felt to certain people close to me, and the way I feel towards them and how their actions have impacted me personally. For that reason, I sang in my lower registers, trying to add that breathy effect to go hand in hand with the song's composition.

"After Tonight" was a song Carey wrote with David Foster and Diane Warren. Carey had strong feelings about the song, as she wrote it about her relationship with Luis Miguel. The song was compared instrumentally to "My All" from Butterfly, which features traces of Latin and guitar instrumentation. In the lyrics, the protagonist asks her lover if he will still love her and come back to her "after tonight." Carey's cover of the Phil Collins song "Against All Odds (Take a Look at Me Now)" was originally intended to be a solo ballad. The song was re-done after the album was released, with music by the Irish band Westlife replacing the song's instrumental bridge. "Can't Take That Away (Mariah's Theme)" was one of the album's most uplifting ballads, lyrically serving as an anthem for fans and listeners. The message, Carey said, was a personal theme of hers growing up, of not letting others "bring her down" and not allowing them to take away the light inside her.