AMG Review of Ultimate Dance Divas

John Bush
All Music Guide

Slightly more than just another television-advertised compilation of high-energy hits, Arista's Ultimate Dance Divas balances leather-lunged shouters from several eras -- ranging from '80s hitmakers Taylor Dayne and Lisa Stansfield to a pair of classic vocalists heard during the mid-'90s (Toni Braxton's classic "Un-Break My Heart," Aretha Franklin's "Deeper Love," Whitney Houston's "It's Not Right but It's Okay") to clubbed-up early-2000s females like Pink ("Get the Party Started") and Dido ("Thank You"). That's enough to raise Ultimate Dance Divas above dozens of similar volumes, but it's still of limited appeal for those who've already heard most of this material elsewhere, on better compilations.