“Timeless”: The new Prince album full of rarities – tracklist, formats, release — Rolling Stone

The Prince Estate and Legacy Recordings (Sony Music) have announced “Timeless,” a career-spanning album of archival recordings, to be released on August 28, 2026. This record marks the first comprehensive curation of archival material since the release of the studio album “Welcome 2 America” in 2021 – and is designed as a historical cross-section that spans almost four decades of Prince’s active work: from 1977 to 2016. The release covers Prince’s first steps as a teenage multi-instrumental prodigy in the recording studios of Minneapolis through to his final live and studio recordings shortly before his sudden death Death.

Insight into “The Vault” and sound engineering

“Timeless” consists of ten tracks, most of which come from the private archive in the Paisley Park studio complex, which is known in fan circles simply as “The Vault”. Sound engineer and producer Chris James (“Art Official Age”) handled the mastering and final mixing of the audio material.

Pre-single “Stone” and other rarities

Accompanying the album announcement, the release of the first single entitled “Stone” was launched, which is now available on common streaming platforms and is available via pre-order (pre-order and pre-save). “Stone” is a studio recording recorded in spring 1995. The song is based on a composition by musicians Sandra St. Victor, Tom Hammer and Jules Van Veen, who submitted the piece to Prince under the original working title “Nothing Left 2 Give”.

Prince reworked the number as part of a proposed collaboration and temporarily considered it for his triple album Emancipation, but ultimately left it in the archive. In addition to “Stone,” the compilation offers other rarities, some of which were only known to collectors in poor bootleg quality or through brief mentions in literary works.

The piece “I Am You,” for example, documents an early home recording from 1978 that was rarely performed live over the course of his career. The song “With This Tear,” on the other hand, was made digitally available in April 2026 in the run-up to the tenth anniversary of his death and now finds its place on a physical recording medium.

Other tracks like “The Guilty Ones” (recorded in October 2007) or “Calabama” (planned for an unnamed album project before the “Musicology” era) complete the release along with a rare live version of the classic “How Come U Don’t Call Me Anymore?”.

Track listing:

Timeless (Digital & CD)

1. I Am You – 1977
2. Tick ​​Tick Bang – 1981
3. Heaven – 1985
4. I Wonder – 1989
5. With This Tear – 1991
6. Stone – 1995
7. Calabama – 2003
8. The Guilty Ones – 2007
9. Best Friend – 2012
10. How Come You Don’t Call Me Anymore? (Live) – 2016

Timeless (1LP)

Side A

1. I am you
2. Tick ​​tick bang
3. Heaven
4. I wonder
5. With This Tear

Side B

1. Stone
2. Calabama
3. The Guilty Ones
4. Best friend
5. How Come You Don’t Call Me Anymore? (Live)