I'm not one of those though. The remixes of half of Rubber Soul's tracks on 2023's revised edition of 1962-1966 scratched whatever itch I had to hear anything from that album remixed. It has also long been my understanding that there isn't a ton of supplementary recordings from the month-long Rubber Soul sessions. The tastiest items were a fairly different first take of "Norwegian Wood" and a very different one of "I'm Looking Through You", and both of those had already been released three decades ago on The Beatles Anthology 2.
For my money, the three volumes of Beatles Anthology compilations are the tidiest ways to hear the most interesting items The Beatles didn't intend to release. Not only did the Anthologies offer a wealth of compelling, often delightful, music, but they also gave us mere mortals the opportunity to hear how those Liverpudlian gods crafted a discography that is as close to perfect as any band has ever made. Finally, we got to hear the screw ups, flubbed takes, imperfect arrangements, and, on rare occasion, bad songs (yes, "What's the New Mary Jane", I am talking about you). The Anthologies performed a tricky task worthy of those tricky Beatles: they both demythologized the band's recording process and functioned as hugely enjoyable alternative listens. The only problem for we vinyl listeners, specifically we extremely unfortunate American ones, is they hadn't been issued on wax since the mid-1990s.
So while all those other Beatlemanics were gnashing their teeth and rending their flesh over another year without a deluxe Rubber Soul, I was pleased as wild honey pie with the news of a big box of the three original Beatles Anthology albums and a new fourth volume. And if you think I'm just being a contrarian bastard, check out this wish-list I published three years ago right here on Psychobabble; my number one wish was an expanded edition of The Beatles Anthology.
Of course, I'd be a sad excuse for a reviewer if I merely hip-hoorayed my way through this new box set. I'm once again left without what I consider to be the best still-never-issued outtakes: namely "Mean Mr. Mustard/Mad Man", "Watching Rainbows", and "All Things Must Pass" caught during the early stages of the Get Back/Let It Be sessions. With their absence from Anthology 4, I will now have to retire my hope that those will ever see legal release.
I'm not necessarily displeased that Anthology 4 is mostly compiled from already issued Super Deluxe Editions, though, because aside from a couple of morsels from the Revolver SDE, and three each from the Abbey Road and Let It Be ones, the remaining 28 tracks have never been officially issued on vinyl before, and here at Psychobabble, vinyl is the only format that matters. These tracks include the two original Anthology singles "Free As a Bird" and "Real Love", which have now been given the same upgraded treatment as that other reunited Beatles-completed Lennon demo, "Now and Then", released two years ago on the revised 1967-1970. No surprise that the improvement in Lennon's vocal is startling, although the decision to render it as dry as Kevin Costner on "Free As a Bird" is a curious one, especially since the singer was such an advocate for running his voice through all manner of echo and flange. Nevertheless, the tracks sound very good, especially "Real Love", which is the one genuinely great song in the trio and is now rendered with the most adventurous vocal sound. The 1995 mixes do have a certain weird charm, so it's nice that we still get to hear them on Anthologies 1 and 2, but the new mixes are an improvement, especially the "Real Love" remix. I got a bit choked up listening to that one.
Sixteen additional tracks that have not previously appeared on SDEs are scattered across Anthology 4. They're mostly front loaded on the chronologically arranged album, since nothing before 1966's Revolver has received the Super Deluxe treatment. Several of these recordings are alternate takes not too different from what was officially released. Tracks featuring a slightly unpolished vocal or a flub or two, or ones missing vocals or certain instruments, might be fleetingly interesting as curiosities, but they don't beg for repeat listens. I'm more drawn to unique approaches to familiar songs. In that regard, we get a more percussive take of "If I Fell"; a peppier, more acoustic take of "I Need You" with up-front maracas; "In My Life" with a slightly different chord sequence in the chorus; a mostly instrumental "Nowhere Man" that somehow sounds both hastier and more languid than the released version; John and Paul getting very goofy during the extended vamp at the end of "Baby, You're a Rich Man"; a rehearsal of "All You Need Is Love" for the BBC with different orchestrations on the intro, some haphazard improvisation from John and George, and a longer vamp at the end; a long instrumental take of "Fool on the Hill" with prominent mallet percussion, acoustic guitar fills, and tack piano; and, currently my favorite of the new tracks, a mix of "I Am the Walrus" highlighting George Martin's spectacular contributions to the arrangement (The Beatles' contributions can be heard very quietly in the background). Apparently what I'd always thought was Clavinet on the latter song is actually clarinet—such different instruments, such similar sounds, such similar names.
There's very little in the way of B-sides from the "Free As a Bird" and "Real Love" singles released in the nineties. Of those six B-sides, only a combo platter of takes 12 and 13 of "This Boy" from "Free As a Bird" is included on Anthology 4. I'm hoping we'll get a reissue of that single with "Christmas Time (Is Here Again)" in time for this year's holidays.
As for the previously released selections, Giles Martin didn't choose the tracks I would have. He included too many early versions of songs that only differ from the finished ones in their roughness, whereas the original Anthology sets favored radically different alternative versions or elaborately arranged songs stripped of their filigree to reveal the four Beatles beneath the familiar strings and horns and backwards tapes. But I guess if he and I were the same person I'd be receiving a lot more of his mail. His two Revolver selections, the full-version of McCartney's mysterious link-track "Can You Take Me Back?", a short but rip-snorting jam on "You're So Square", the orchestral version of "Strawberry Fields Forever", and the non-orchestral version of "Good Night" are all smart picks. I would have selected more unique songs, such as the demos for "Goodbye", "Circles", and "Sour Milk Sea", but to be fair to Martin's choices, all of those are already available on vinyl. The ten minute-plus take of "Revolution" was not and would have been an easy pick for me because of how radically it differs from the released version, but again, there's that whole separate people thing.
Anthology 4 is the least essential volume in this series, but it hangs together surprisingly nicely, and I'm glad that Martin didn't leave any phase of The Beatles' career unrepresented. At least one outtake from each of their thirteen albums is included.
The big surprise of this set as a whole is that quite a number of tracks on the first three Anthologies are different from the ones you remember. Changes have been made to at least two dozen songs. Nine tracks, mostly "White Album" demos, have been replaced with their SDE equivalents, though four of them have been edited to sound more like the versions on the nineties Anthologies. These substitutions are barely noticeable except for "Helter Skelter", which replaces 1996's punchy mono with the less powerful stereo mix. Furthermore, "Mr. Moonlight", which was in mono in 1995, is now in stereo. A ten second section of "You Know My Name (Look Up the Number)" that was stereo in '96 is now mono. "Across the Universe" underwent a less noticeable change as its stereo spectrum has slightly narrowed since 1996.
The most common alteration is the application of "stereo processing" to eighteen mono cuts. Apple/UMe is quick to point out that this is not "electronic reprocessed stereo"—i.e.: fake stereo—but "a subtle spread of the mono signal." Honestly, I can't really hear the effect on a lot of the tracks supposedly treated with it. I even flicked my mono switch on and off during some of these numbers, such as "You Know What to Do" and Take 7 of "Strawberry Fields Forever", and heard no difference. I could hear it a bit more on The Quarrymen's (i.e.: The Beatles before they were The Beatles) "That'll Be the Day" and "In Spite of All the Danger". It's only very obvious on "Leave My Kitten Alone", which has a touch more guitar ambience in the left speaker and a touch more piano ambience in the right, but I can also hear a muted version of that separation on the 1995 version. In any event, the extreme subtly of this effect is probably for the best for everyone but terminal monophobes.
Giles Martin has also remixed three live cuts on 1 and 2 that originally appeared in mono. Again, subtlety is the key, as the separation is modest. He restored four early recordings too, including both sides of that Quarrymen single. Those restorations render the tracks more present, less flat and distant, than they sounded in 1995. By drawing out such details, the distortions are more apparent as well.
To assess Martin's remastering job and the vinyl pressing, I only had the European issue of Anthology 2 on vinyl for comparison purposes (I used MP3s to compare the differences between the other volumes). To my ears, that 1996 issue has powerful yet distinct bass, but it's lacking in mid-range, leaving the highs thin and a bit harsh, with occasional sibilance; "Good Morning, Good Morning" is a real offender in that area. The new remaster smoothes out that issue. The sound is balanced without sibilance. "Good Morning, Good Morning" sounds fab. All I noticed was some light inner groove distortion on a few sides of Anthology 1 and a touch of static in the left channel audible through headphones during "Goodnight" on Anthology 3 and the all-orchestra mix of "Something" on Anthology 4.
Each of the twelve LPs is flat and quiet. The printing on the covers is not as rich as the first press, but the new covers are much sturdier and better quality. The inner pockets for LPs 2 and 3 in each volume are authentic to the construction of the nineties covers, but they're kind of a hassle when accessing those discs.
All in all, Anthology 4 is good fun; I'm a big fan of the remaster of the first three volumes and a big fan of the Beatles Anthology project in general. Welcome back!
