A Princely collection

ULTIMATE

Prince

Even if you think he’s a funny looking, badly dressed little freak, everyone loves at least some of Prince’s music.

The Scissor Sisters’ Jake Shears put Controversy up as his all-time favourite gay album in a feature in Attitude magazine recently, and he’s not alone.

Controversy includes titles like Do Me, Baby, Sexuality and Jack U Off, and asks the question (in 1981, mind) Am I straight or gay?

Despite the overwhelming gayness of it, Controversy was not his best album and only contributes its title track to Ultimate, the long-awaited, released but pulled, collection of Prince’s catchiest and coolest songs.

As far as best-of albums go, this is a good one. The first disc includes most of the songs a fan would want (1999, When Doves Cry, Gett Off, Sign O The Times, etc.), and the second a collection of remixes.

Of different songs, thankfully, including Little Red Corvette, Kiss and Raspberry Beret. Oh, and Cream. But that was a shocker and a remix isn’t enough to make it good.

BREAKFAST ON PLUTO

Various artists

The word essential applied to any music release is always a bit of a giveaway.

On the soundtrack to the new Neil Jordan film Breakfast On Pluto, a cover sticker promises essential songs from the 60s and 70s, which should be read as: This album contains songs from the 60s and 70s that your parents, even if they were total dags, would probably have found daggy.

I mean, aside from T-Rex’s Children Of The Revolution -“ which probably does have some right to the title essential -“ this album includes Patti Page singing (How Much Is) That Doggy In The Window, Morris Albert’s Feelings and Harry Nilsson’s You’re Breaking My Heart.

Neil Jordan offers a cute explanation for the lack of obvious essential artists (like Bowie and Lennon) of the period in the liner notes.

The collection, he says, is an alternative version of the early seventies, before the disco explosion, where every song wore its heart on its sleeve, and that heart was a purple one.

Anyway, the songs on Breakfast On Pluto are fun, and camp, and easy to sing along to. And let’s face it, some of us are dags at heart.

Reviews: Stacy Farrar