A seemingly well-assembled package that fails to go quite as far as it should, sticking closely to the charted material and rarely delving into the vaults for interesting oddities — three rehearsal takes are tacked onto the end of the third disc in the set, providing little of interest to collectors or to the curious. The booklet does a workmanlike job of tracking the progress of the band, but there are few insights to be found in the difficult-to-read text.
The set is built around the A and B sides of singles, with album cuts salted in between. This is effective in charting the band’s progression from melodic popsters to hard rockers and back to the pop-inflected music that closed out their career. The highlights are scattered throughout — “American Woman,” of course; “Rain Dance,” with its unnerving echoes of American massacres, the funky, improvised live “Truckin’ Off Across the Sky,” even the goofy “Clap for the Wolfman,” which came when the Guess Who were all but finished.
The Ultimate Collection works well as an introduction to the Guess Who, but will not gratify anyone with more than a basic need to know. On a sonic level, the set sounds good, however. – Steven McDonald