1995: Bill Clinton was President of the U.S., John Major was Prime Minister of the U.K., phones weren't yet smart, Braveheart won Best Picture, the O.J. trial was on everyone's mind, Jerry Garcia died, and the biggest songs of the year were Coolio's "Gangsta's Paradise" (U.S.) and Robson and Jerome's "Unchained Melody/White Cliffs of Dover" (U.K.).  In November, the band that changed pop music forever launched its first major archival project at a time when such vault deep dives weren't yet (so) commonplace.  The Beatles Anthology was a true multimedia venture, encompassing a television series (aired in six parts in Britain, three in America), three double-disc volumes of music, and, later, a lavish coffee table book - plus "Free as a Bird" and then "Real Love," the first new songs from John, Paul, George, and Ringo in more than two decades.

Over the past thirty years since the debut of Anthology, archival releases from the Fab Four have arrived with considerably more regularity.  2003's Let It Be...Naked earned Platinum status in the States.  2004 and 2006 brought two volumes of The Capitol Albums (later reworked into The U.S. Albums in 2014) and the first set, too, went Platinum.  2009 saw remastered mono and stereo box sets of the band's original albums, with the stereo set going triple Platinum as a sign of the group's enduring strength.  In 2017, the Fabs released the first of a series of deluxe album box sets with Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band.  That series has since seen expanded versions of The Beatles (a.k.a. The White Album), Abbey Road, Let It Be (a tie-in with Peter Jackson's epic Get Back documentary), and Revolver.  Last year brought the vinyl-only release of 1964 U.S. Albums in Mono and the debut of the final Beatles recording, the at-last-completed "Now and Then."  There have also been singles boxes, unique international album sets, BBC session releases, Christmas collections, and more.

Now, the team at Apple Corps and producer/longtime collaborator Giles Martin (son of George) has delivered Anthology Collection: 191 tracks on 8 CDs or 12 LPs featuring remastered (and occasionally tweaked) versions of the original three volumes plus a newly-curated Anthology 4.  This fourth volume is also available individually on CD and LP and coincides with the premiere of the documentary series on Disney+ starting today, including a new, final episode.

The challenges to assembling a true, new Anthology were manifold, including the deaths of George Harrison and George Martin in 2001 and 2016, respectively.  How would Apple Corps approach another volume, considering that the first three already unfolded the story of the band from 1958 - before there was a band - through 1970 in chronological and comprehensive fashion?  The collective impact of those three original sets (the first six discs of Anthology Collection) is difficult to overstate, so voluminous was the amount of revelatory music revealed by George Martin and the "Threetles" to the public.  Today, the amount of quality vault material on which to draw is naturally smaller, and some of it (I'm looking at you, "Carnival of Light") seems destined to remain unheard.  As a result, Anthology 4 is a grab-bag comprising 17 bonus cuts from the aforementioned deluxe editions; over a dozen previously unreleased cuts, mostly from The Beatles' early days (and therefore from albums as yet unaddressed in a box set series); and other odds and ends.

Anthology 4 also chronicles the whole of the band's recording career, essentially revisiting the milieu of the first three sets and offering new 2025 mixes of "Free as a Bird" and "Real Love" as well as the existing mix of "Now and Then."  A more adventurous approach might have been to blend the tracks of Anthology 4 into the main body of the first three volumes to preserve the chronological approach, but surely that, too, would have met with resistance by some quarters.  In its current form, it's not without its rewards.

Naturally, the previously unreleased tracks on Anthology 4 are the main attraction for those who already own the expanded editions of Pepper's, The Beatles, Abbey Road, Let It Be, and Revolver - and they will certainly whet one's appetite for the early albums to be tackled by Giles Martin and company.  There's a real thrill in hearing John and George work out which notes to sing in harmony with Paul before Take 4 of "Tell Me Why" before almost instantly going off the rails; the next take is raucously rowdy and primal, with the group reveling in the sheer joy of playing rock and roll and the listener reveling in hearing it.   On the same date of February 27, 1964, they recorded the tentative but touching Take 11 (of 27) of "If I Fell."  It's raw and altogether unvarnished with flubbed lyrics, but captures a beautifully youthful sound.

A June 1 date yielded the first take of Carl Perkins' "Matchbox," sung with gusto by Ringo just two days before he entered the hospital with a throat infection.  Perkins remembered attending the session, in which Ringo delivers his lead with a sense of glee and abandon.  A couple of takes from September 30 shine a light on Beatles for Sale's little gem "Every Little Thing."  The fly-on-the-wall atmosphere lets us hear John addressing engineer Norman "Hurricane" Smith about the microphone placement, while the second of the takes breaks down into gales of laughter.

The raw Take 1 of George's "I Need You" (missing the wah-wah precursor volume pedal effects) from February 15, 1965 offers an insight into the band's process as Paul works his way through the bass part and George's bandmates' laughter threatens to derail the whole take that Harrison valiantly gets through. Indeed, there's plenty of merriment on Anthology 4 such as when John quips, "Lonnie's gonna regret not singing this one!" about "I've Just Seen a Face."  The June 14 take emphasizes McCartney and the band's taut musicianship in rollicking style.

Take 1 of "In My Life," recorded months later on October 18, is surely a candidate for an upcoming Rubber Soul set.  Lennon experimenting with his phrasing on the first take, the harmonies a tad ramshackle but the feeling already apparent.  George Martin's harpsichord-evoking piano solo is missing and the arrangement is very much in development, yet the significance of the song is evident.  Just three days later, the lads set down the first version of "Nowhere Man."  Anthology 4 offers the second take with its a cappella opening.  It's clearly unfinished and largely performed without its lyrics, but a tantalizing glimpse of the Beatles' process as the Byrds-inspired instrumental arrangement takes shape.

The sound is heavier by the May 11, 1967 date at Olympic Studios for "Baby You're a Rich Man."  The drug era has begun, and the bandmates joke about their wish for "cannabis resin" to be brought into the studio just one day after Mick Jagger and Keith Richards appeared in court on illegal drug charges.  (Per the liner notes, "The words '+ Mick Jagger?' written on one of the Olympic tape boxes indicate that the Rolling Stone attended this session.")  The vocals on the undubbed master here are alternately ethereal and snarling, further revealing the song's roots in soul and R&B.

English composer-pianist Steve Race narrates a June 24 rehearsal of "All You Need Is Love" for the BBC Our World broadcast, explaining that three tracks had already been filled on the four-track tape, with the orchestra and John's lead vocal set to be laid down.  John's vocal is loose, and the closing ad libs are different from those on the familiar version.

The instrumental tracks recorded in September 1967 of "The Fool on the Hill" (Take 5, a full-length version with various overdubs) and "I Am the Walrus" (Take 19, an unused attempt at George Martin's strings, brass, and clarinet orchestration), followed by the driving Take 4 instrumental of "Hey Bulldog" from February 11, 1968 showcase just how powerfully The Beatles integrated various instrumental textures  into their recordings, however varied in style.  The group's rapid progression and development as songwriters and musicians is the throughline that animates all four volumes of Anthology: The Beatles weren't following the trends; they were setting them.

Anthology 4 closes with the trio of "Free as a Bird," "Real Love," and "Now and Then," the first two of which have been newly remixed by original producer Jeff Lynne utilizing Peter Jackson's de-mixing technology.  This is the same technology that made both the Get Back film and "Now and Then" possible.  On the latter, the software was utilized to separate John's vocal and piano from the background noises of his original demo.  For the 2025 mixes of "Free as a Bird" and "Real Love," similar work has been performed on Lennon's demos, allowing Lynne to rebuild them from the ground up.  On "Free as a Bird," the result is akin to removing a layer of gauze from the 1995 version.  All of a sudden, a vibrant Lennon is in the room.  The sound of "Real Love" is a bit different, as Lynne and engineer Steve Jay have taken more liberties with the 1995 production including the surprising removal of some of George Harrison's guitar fills and licks.  John's voice is undoubtedly clearer yet feels somehow less organic and more detached from the overall track.  The result still resembles Lennon fronting The Traveling Wilburys - perhaps even more so than in the 1995 mix - but whereas the 2025 "Free as a Bird" is a clear improvement to these ears, the new "Real Love" rings somewhat hollow.  "Now and Then" remains a fitting farewell, and a moving, elegiac coda to the enduring story of the foursome from Liverpool.

The packaging of Anthology Collection on CD is simple but effective, with four individual digipaks housed in a sturdy slipcase.  A wraparound band with a photo of the group keeps the digipaks in place.  Curiously, Anthology 4 doesn't have its own collage cover but rather sports the same image as the slipcase cover, of the three previously released volumes.  (Perhaps Klaus Voormann was unavailable, or the group chose not to enlist someone to pay homage to his style.)  The format of all four volumes is identical, a six-panel, three-pocket digipak with the thick booklet in the leftmost pocket and the two CDs in slots.  For Anthology 4, Kevin Howlett has picked up the liner notes mantle from Mark Lewisohn, providing helpful track-by-track annotations with plenty of fascinating tidbits and context.  Art director Richard Ward has happily matched the style of the original volumes for this newest addition.

If Anthology 4 doesn't live up to The Beatles' finest archival trawls of the past, it's peppered (no pun intended) with many sterling examples of the joyous sound of the Fab Four at work and at play, and a handful of new treasures to savor.  It also whets the appetite for the final episode of the television series soon to debut on Disney+, not to mention hopeful future expansions of the band's earliest albums.  Think of it as more of a bonus disc to the original three definitive volumes - a thought furthered by its lack of new cover artwork - and it becomes a more appealing extra helping of little glimpses into how the magic was made.  Combined with the previously unreleased takes and mixes, the remastered and largely improved sound of the complete Anthology Collection may well be enough for longtime fans to take the plunge.  If you want it, here it is, come and get it.

Anthology Collection is available now at the following links.  As an Amazon affiliate, we earn from qualifying purchases.

8CD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada / Official Store
12LP: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada / Official Store

Anthology 4 is available now as a standalone release on CD and 180-gram vinyl:

2CD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada
3LP: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada​​