A 3-disc bundle of the artist's pivotal new millennium pop party dance music, Ultimate Rave brings together CDs of 1999s Rave Un2 the Joy Fantastic and its 2001 remix Rave In2 the Joy Fantastic alongside a DVD containing the full-length performance version of Rave Un2 the Year 2000. Rave Un2 The Joy Fantastic features a surprising amount of guest artists (Chuck D, Eve, Gwen Stefani, Sheryl Crow) and a clutch of radio-friendly tracks while Rave In2 The Joy Fantastic was one of the first full releases for Prince's innovative NPG Music Club members; highlights include a remix of Hot Wit U that incorporates elements of the Prince-penned Vanity 6 hit "Nasty Girl" and the previously unreleased "Beautiful Strange."

The Pretenders' 1987 collection, The Singles, did a fine job of assembling most of the group's finest tracks up to that point in their career, so after another decade passed, their record company felt it was necessary to compile a more "updated" collection, 2000's Euro-only release Greatest Hits. Although it contains a total of 20 tracks, Greatest Hits ultimately fails to improve over its predecessor, for the simple fact that the early '80s was the Pretenders' artistic and commercial peak, and Greatest Hits contains too much latter-day material. Whereas it would have been a wise move to showcase such oft-overlooked classics as "Tattooed Love Boys," "Mystery Achievement," "Precious," "My City Was Gone," or "Birds of Paradise" (all of which weren't included on The Singles), Greatest Hits includes such not-as-strong selections as "Night in My Veins," "Breakfast in Bed," and "Human" instead. Although there are quite a few gems included ("Brass in Pocket," "Message of Love," "Talk of the Town," "Kid," "Back on the Chain Gang," etc.), Greatest Hits leaves out far too many prime selections to be considered truly definitive.

The Pretenders Greatest Hits is a selection of 20 songs and their variously successful videos. Chrissie Hynde arrived in the UK in 1973, and after a period as the "Loud Yank" NME journalist, she realised her dream of putting a band together. "Stop Your Sobbing" was a terrific first single for The Pretenders, debuting a voice that defied comparison or description. Naturally it's included here. Chrissie hated the early videos for her songs, especially "Brass in Pocket", which was one of the very first shown on MTV. She relays this sort of information to camera in the terrific documentary, "No Turn Left Unstoned", featured on this DVD. Comments come in from Rosanna Arquette, ex-managers, Elvis Costello, Bono, and her oldest friend.

The Goldies label is dependable for one thing: you never know what you're going to get. This compilation by Tom Jones is a case in point. While there are some of his classic songs here such as "Delilah" and "She's a Lady," they are not the original versions. They're recorded with a big studio band with a funked up bassline and some cheesy keyboards with a bigger than God horn section and a doubled up female backing chorus. But those aren't the biggest surprises. Those come later, making this an almost indispensable collection.