Prince – Timeless

Album details

Rating

Introduction

On June 4, 2026, I received an email from The Prince Estate. A new Prince album, titled Timeless, would be released on August 28. On Prince’s 10th death anniversary (April 21, 2026), the song With This Tear had been released via streaming services, followed by Stone on June 4. Neither song did much to fuel my enthusiasm for the release. But I was very much looking forward to the first four songs. Even though I had already owned three of the four songs on bootleg for decades, they were songs I was eager to have in perfect sound quality.

Prince – Timeless

Timeless

The album was scheduled to be released on streaming services at 6 a.m. (Dutch time). So after getting up and finding some time between work, I sat down to listen to Timeless. The first three tracks: wow! And what a beautiful song Heaven is. But then came the first disappointment: I Wonder was not the original 1989 version I knew from bootlegs and which was one of my all-time favorites, but a remixed version from two or three years later, complete with ugly additions (keyboards, piano, percussion) that turn the performance into a disappointment. With This Tear and Stone had already been released. Both Calabama and The Guilty Ones are better than what came before, far from fantastic, but decent. Bestest Friend is awful. The closing track, a stunning live version of How Come U Don’t Call Me Anymore, recorded a month and a half before his death, once again demonstrates that Prince remained a powerhouse live performer right until the end. His voice was still powerful and crystal clear.

Track by track

I Am You

When the album is good, it is truly fantastic. The opener I Am You is a wonderful surprise. What the 18/19-year-old Prince delivers here is incredibly mature. Recorded in 1977, before Prince had even started recording his debut album For You. The riff was successfully reused in The Time‘s I Don’t Wanna Leave You. A great track.

Tick, Tick, Bang

Recorded in 1981, this track is still a joy to listen to. The intro alone, with Prince hysterically shouting “1, 2, 3, 4”, is fantastic. And then the punky, hard-hitting song itself still has to begin. I’ve owned it on several bootlegs for a long time, but what a pleasure it is to hear it now in all its glory. It was officially released in 1990 in a re-recorded, inferior version on the Graffiti Bridge album.

Heaven

The standout track on this release. What a pleasure it is to hear this in such sound quality. This song had also been circulating among fans for decades. It was recorded on May 26, 1985, at Sunset Sound, where Prince recorded so much of his best music. With vocal support from Susannah Melvoin, Prince once again turns Heaven into one of those irresistible rhythmic masterpieces, with beautiful synthesizer riffs and vocals woven together into a heavenly, impressive whole. Timeless is essential based on this track alone.

I Wonder

The album’s major disappointment. The original 1989 version is phenomenal. Very sparse and minimalist, but all the more incredibly powerful because of it. Prince sometimes had a tendency to rework songs for inclusion in other projects (see Tick, Tick, Bang above), and he did the same with this song. In 1991/1992, percussion, keyboards and piano were added to I Wonder, and the title was changed to Wonder. A monumental blunder that the updated version ended up on this album. It completely undermines the song’s true beauty and power. The (rather meager) booklet states that the song dates from 1989, which is incorrect for this version.

Prince – With This Tear

With This Tear

Recorded on November 19, 1991, at Paisley Park Studios, the song was initially intended for Jevetta Steele, but was offered to Celine Dion shortly afterwards, who released it on her album Celine Dion on March 31, 1992. A sentimental, meaningless song.

Stone

Recorded on April 30, 1995, at Paisley Park Studios, it was once part of an early configuration for the 1996 three-CD album Emancipation. It was also considered for the posthumous Originals release. A rather dull, plodding song.

Calabama

A decent uptempo track, recorded on January 21, 2003.

The Guilty Ones

A decent uptempo rock song, recorded on October 26, 2007.

Bestest Fiend

A terrible song, recorded on September 3, 2012. A sort of cross between the grandeur of Diamonds And Pearls and the symphonic rock of 3 Chains O’ Gold. As far as I’m concerned, both songs rank among the worst things he ever recorded anyway, so the combination is doomed from the start.

How Come U Don’t Call Me Anymore (Live)

An impressive performance of the 1982 B-side. Prince is at the peak of his vocal abilities. An incredible performance. Prince was 57 when he performed this on March 4, 2026, just a month and a half before his death. Soulful, playful, funky, and all of it performed solo; just Prince and his piano.

Review

At this time, there is little point in going into too much detail about the purpose of this release, The Prince Estate’s fumbling, the general usefulness of releases like this, and what they do to Prince’s legacy.

The album itself is disappointing. Four genuinely good songs is far too little to give an album of just 10 tracks a passing grade. A score of 2 out of 5 is therefore the only option, although Heaven alone deserves an extra half point.

The release has a number of problems. The extremely ugly cover, which feels downright cheap. The statement “mixed and mastered by Chris James” suggests that the original mixes of the songs have been altered, and for me, that is a no-go. The choice of Wonder over the original I Wonder is incomprehensible. And closing a studio album with a live performance from a tour that the entire Prince community would love to see released in its entirety is, to put it mildly, an unfortunate choice.

The grandiose statements made shortly after Prince’s death, namely that the Paisley Park Vault contained enough material to release an album of new music every year for decades, have already gone unfulfilled for two years. When you then come up with uninspired releases like this, it is unworthy of Prince. Even if it does contain the magnificent Heaven.

Prince – Timeless – Back cover

Songs

All songs written by Prince, except Stone by Prince, Sandra St. Victor, V. Jeffrey Smith and Jules Van Veen.

• I Am You
• Tick, Tick, Bang
• Heaven
• I Wonder
• With This Tear
• Stone
• Calabama
• The Guilty Ones
• Bestest Friend
• How Come You Don’t Call Me Anymore (Live)

Musicians

• Prince – vocals and instruments

With assistance from

• Susannah Melvoin – additional vocals on Heaven
• Michael B. – drums on With This Tear
• Sonny T. – bass on With This Tear
• Kirk Johnson – percussion on With This Tear; drums and programmed percussion on Stone
• John Blackwell – drums on Calabama
• Greg Boyer, Adrian Crutchfield, Lynn Grissett – horns on Calabama
• Cora Coleman-Dunham – drums on The Guilty Ones
• Josh Dunham – bass on The Guilty Ones
• Marva King, Shelby J. – background vocals on The Guilty Ones
• Michael B. Nelson, Kathy Jensen, Dave Jensen, Kenni Holmen, Steve Strand – horns on Bestest Friend

In closing

What’s your take on Timeless? Let me know!

Video/Spotify
This story contains an accompanying video. Click on the following link to see it: Video: Prince – Timeless. The A Pop Life playlist on Spotify has been updated as well.