Anthology 4: A Review

We’ve Already Heard Half of the Album.

Some of these songs we’ve already heard because of the Deluxe editions of albums like the White Album or Abbey Road. It’s filler, and it’s honestly a disservice to the fans who love collecting these albums. One song from one of the Deluxe editions, I could’ve forgiven, but almost HALF OF THE ALBUM is previously released tracks from the Deluxe Editions of albums; what a cash grab. A total rip off for collectors.

The remixes of Free As A Bird and Real Love.

Months ago we got the pleasure to listen to the 2025 remix of Free As A Bird, and I was at first pleasantly surprised, until I heard the lyric change they did on George Harrison’s part. It made me stop and replay that part over and over; because it was so unnatural. I listened back to the whole track again and found the AI enhancements on John’s voice is very jarring. The instruments are too polished and clean and you lose that magic, that fuzzy type of sound that seemed to be intentionally mixed in a way to match with the quality of the demo tape. The magic of the original 1996 song was gone; especially since it was such an impressive technological advancement in music for the time. What’s worse is that they used this process on Real Love, and the remix really sterilized this song to the point where I think AI could’ve wrote this, if you gave it the prompt “Write Me a Beatles Song” Again John Lennon’s voice very jarring, obviously AI quality. I also can’t tell if they were doing a double track John Lennon vocal or if Paul McCartney recorded a new lead vocal to be mixed in with John’s (probably not). The lead vocal is just very very confusing. Those warm fuzzy tones in the mixing are gone in this track too. Also WHY ARE WE CUTTING GEORGE’S GUITAR? The call and response adds so much depth to the song, and it’s lost that musical depth. I feel like they really disrespected George Harrison’s parts on these two songs all in the attempt to make John’s voice clear. Seems like a very Paul McCartney move to be able to edit George’s parts with AI and George can’t do anything about; that’s just speculation on my end. Overall the remixes not worth it, a waste of time and resources. You’re better off listening to bootlegs online or clever covers from fans that actual use AI properly and creatively for the Beatles’ voices.

Missed Opportunity for Tracks Remember when Free As A Bird and Real Love had essentially EPs released on CD before their respective Anthology albums were released? I do, and I always wanted the tracks on those CDs to be available on Apple Music or Spotify; have it released onto something.

For example the tracks that accompanied Free As A Bird, were “I Saw Her Standing There” (Take 9), “This Boy” (Take 12& 13), and Christmas Time (Is Here Again). They did take the version of This Boy off of here, why not the other two?

From the Real Love EP they already re-used “Baby’s in Black” for Live at the Hollywood Bowl, and “Yellow Submarine” for the Super Deluxe version of Revolver, why not the edited version of Here There and Everywhere (Take 7 with the Take 13 overdubs) that would’ve been a fun nod to what the Anthology was back in the 90s.

Also there’s probably a plethora of material to choose from: the longer version of All Too Much, Outtakes of I Should’ve Known Better (like we heard in the Anthology tv series), Nowhere Man (Live in Munich), Watching Rainbows, Yer Blues (from the Rolling Stones special), Revolution (from David Frost). The possibilities are endless! They could’ve dropped Carnival of Lights if they wanted to!

However that being said I do like the selection of takes that I haven’t heard before. It’s great hearing the different takes from more of their earlier material. It’s refreshing since there’s been such a focus on their later career or remixing albums like the red and blue album.

I wish there were more takes of songs that we haven’t heard before instead of rehashing previously released material to make up half the album. I honestly wouldn’t be surprised if they reused a lot of these new tracks when they do Super Deluxe versions of albums that don’t have their Super Deluxe version yet.

What a let down, what a bummer, not a lot of saving graces. If they wanted to do this Anthology 4 properly then they would’ve done so much fan service, because honestly without the fans there wouldn’t have been an Anthology series to begin with, and at this point why hold back on what’s left in the vault? Oh wait cause it’s about money, apologies.

Those are my thoughts. Feel free to add on or disagree. I just wanted to share this with other Beatles fans. Hope you all have a pleasant day!