What really made the movie Purple Rain a success was the record Purple Rain. Prince & The Revolution defined a pop era with the soundrack album. Prince's eccentric and inventive songwriting techniques, his underrated guitar skills, and his dance sensibility make much of the record remain fresh and catchy even today, 25 years after its release.
Prince's 2004 reboot album finds Prince less bawdy than he was at the height of his success—and more concerned, as is the recent trend in popular music, with political issues. He can still write a killer dance song though—and the stylistic range between Grammy-winning "Musicology," Grammy-winning "Call My Name," and Grammy-nominated "Cinnamon Girl" is something that any music fan should be able to appreciate.
On the first of the two-discs you'll get what you would find on any other "greatest hits" Prince album. The second disc, though, is what makes this worth a look; it's full of interesting remixes and dance mixes—sweet.
Prince had been proving his mettle on the dance-rock scene for quite some time before Purple Rain. 1999's hits "Little Red Corvette" and "1999" are still recognizable tunes—the latter jumping back into the charts shortly before the turn of the millennium.