Prince’s new concept album sounds like a novelty must-own. The review in today’s Washington Post

(“Prince Flies Somewhere Over the Rainbow”) is worth a read. And what, pray tell, is the album about, you ask? Allow me to quote Post staff writer David Segal:

The glaring flaw of “Rainbow” is the story it tells through both music and a between-songs narrator whose voice has been slowed to a tempo that sounds like Barry White on barbiturates. The tale is an impossible-to-follow account of a character known only as “the Wise One” as he leads the Rainbow Children — whoever they are — and does battle with a no-goodnik named “the Resistor,” a sharpie with the Devil’s
dedication to wickedness. Along the way, the Wise One apparently weds a beautiful woman with excellent hair, then builds something called the Digital Garden, where spiritual unity with God is achieved. Or else it isn’t. You could spend a week trying to untangle the plot and cast of “The Rainbow Children,”
though that would be a deeply maddening seven days.

Prince seems to be conjuring a biblical allegory of sorts — there are many references to God and Christ — as he declaims about race, love and enlightenment.

How can you resist?