More ironic footnote than ultimate collection, this anthology is a bittersweet reprise of Aimee Mann's troubled major-label career. Take a few 'Til Tuesday tracks (including their 1980s hit, "Voices Carry"), most of her I'm With Stupid album, some tracks from Whatever, and a whole bunch of B-sides, and you've got--what? Let's call it the penultimate collection, since the songs from Mann's breakthrough Magnolia soundtrack and Bachelor No. 2 album will have to wait for a subsequent, and perhaps more essential, compilation (one not likely to be issued by the parent company that dumped Mann and made her buy her album back). This collection does boast a lovely cover of Badfinger's "Baby Blue," while Mann originals like "That's Just What You Are," "Amateur," and "Long Shot" (all from I'm With Stupid) still sound great. But without "Save Me" or Mann's other more recent triumphs (or, come to think of it, anything from her first band's Bark Along with the Young Snakes), Utimate Collection doesn't begin to tell the story of this talented pop survivor. --Bill Forman