Anthology 4

The long-awaited fourth instalment of The Beatles’ archival <i>Anthology</i> project—marking the 30th anniversary of the first three volumes—may not be a vault-clearing revelation on par with its predecessors; after all, 23 of its 36 tracks have appeared on previous reissues. But if Peter Jackson’s eight-hour <i>Get Back</i> docuseries proved anything, it’s that we can never get enough of eavesdropping on The Beatles’ creative process in the studio, and <i>Anthology 4</i> extends that ethos to the group’s entire 1963-1969 evolution, presenting a concise chronological overview of their career filtered through an intimate, fly-on-the-wall perspective. Through its array of rough takes, improvised jams, BBC rehearsal recordings and mid-song giggle fits, <i>Anthology 4</i> is an opportunity to savour the details that you might’ve overlooked in the pristine finished products. Stripped of its beaming harmonies, a mostly instrumental version of “Nowhere Man” lets you marinate in the song’s jangly melancholy; a brass-free “Got to Get You Into My Life” foregrounds its fuzzy garage-rock edges; and the isolated string tracks of “I Am the Walrus” are every bit as disorienting and dramatic as the song itself. And then there are those glorious moments when you get to hear a song you’ve played a thousand times before in a completely different way: Who knew that, when you subtract the orchestration and perform it on electric guitar, the White Album ballad “Good Night” is basically the world’s first lo-fi bedroom-pop tune? <i>Anthology 4</i> stretches the timeline past The Beatles’ 1970 breakup to include the recombinant singles that Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr put together for the 1995 <i>Anthology</i> series, with fresh remixes of “Free as a Bird” and “Real Love” that bring greater clarity to John Lennon’s original cassette-demo vocal through the same technology that allowed them to complete the bittersweet ballad “Now and Then” in 2023. That song was billed as the final Beatles single, but like Shakespeare, Brothers Grimm and the Bible, the Fab Four story has been told many times before and—as <i>Anthology 4</i> reaffirms—that tradition will continue for years to come. The version we get here is less a comprehensive catalogue of The Beatles’ greatest achievements than a finely curated gallery exhibit of inspired rough sketches, capturing the playful spirit of four lads who taught generations of musicians how to use the studio as their sandbox.