Ultimate Prince (2006)
Disc One
1. I Wanna Be Your Lover
2. Uptown
3. Controversy
4. 1999
5. Delirious
6. When Doves Cry
7. I Would Die 4 U
8. Purple Rain
9. Sign "O" the Times
10.I Could Never Take the Place of Your Man
11.Alphabet St.
12.Diamonds and Pearls
13.Gett Off
14.Money Don't Matter 2 Night
15.7
16.Nothing Compares 2 U
17.My Name is Prince
Disc Two
1. Let's Go Crazy
2. Little Red Corvette
3. Let's Work
4. Pop Life
5. She's Always in My Hair
6. Raspberry Beret
7. Kiss
8. U Got the Look
9. Hot Thing
10.Thieves in the Temple
11.Cream
In the long line of post-peak compilations, Ultimate Prince falls squarely into the category of “mostly harmless.” Not egregious enough to offend, nor essential enough to excite, it’s the kind of release that quietly appears on the shelves and, just as quietly, is superseded by stronger, more considered retrospectives. One struggles to define precisely who this was intended for: completists likely already own the majority of material here in better contexts, while newcomers are better served elsewhere.
Structurally, the package is muddled. The first disc adheres to a standard hits format—reasonably curated, if not definitive. Yet it is the second disc that unsettles the balance: a collection of extended dance remixes, largely of songs omitted from the first. While the mixes themselves are mostly effective (several of them excellent), their juxtaposition with a conventional hits disc gives the overall package a fractured identity. It wants to be both a comprehensive overview and a club-ready deep dive—but ends up being neither.
Worse still is the gaping omission of some key material. Several significant tracks are conspicuously absent, and nothing here postdates the early 1990s—a limitation imposed not by artistic intent but by licensing restrictions. As such, Ultimate Prince feels not like a thoughtfully constructed anthology, but a product of boardroom compromise.
More successful predecessors have shown how it can be done properly. The Hits/The B-Sides remains the gold standard, offering both breadth and depth, while The Very Best of Prince at least delivers a concise, accessible primer. Both are more coherent, more complete, and more artistically sound than this compilation. Ultimate Prince falls into the unfortunate trap of trying to do too much with too little, resulting in a release that feels aimless and redundant.
Had the project been committed to one path—a full disc of well-sequenced hits, or a standalone collection of remixes—it might have stood on firmer ground. Instead, the hybrid approach only serves to highlight what’s missing and what doesn’t quite fit.
In the end, Ultimate Prince is not so much a failure as it is a missed opportunity. A scattershot affair with flashes of brilliance, it lacks the cohesion or ambition necessary to stand as a definitive statement. File under: inessential.
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