THE BEATLES: The Anthology Collection (Apple/UMG)
Verdict: Fab but spasmodic
The past eight years have seen a trawl through the archives to produce expanded editions of classic Beatles LPs. Starting with Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band in 2017, the project has delivered lovingly curated versions of The White Album, Abbey Road, Let It Be and Revolver. We’ve now reached a stage, however, where it’s the deluxe retrospectives that are getting the deluxe reissue treatment.
The band’s Anthology series, featuring out-takes and demos, was first released, in three instalments, to coincide with a 1995 TV documentary, The Beatles Anthology.
With that TV footage now restored, and due to start streaming on Disney+ on Wednesday (Nov 26), the three Anthology albums have been remastered by Giles Martin, son of original Beatles producer George, and repackaged as a 12-LP vinyl box (£310), 8-CD set (£95), and digitally.
At 191 tracks, the spasmodic (and pricey) Anthology Collection is too much of a Fab thing, and even the most loyal Beatles nut might detect the sound of a barrel being scraped.
Cavern Men: The Beatles performing in the legendary Liverpool nightclub in 1962
But this is The Beatles, and the reissue is still worthy of attention due to the addition of a fourth album: featuring (amid other rarities) 13 unreleased session recordings, the fourth disc is available as part of the box set, but also as a more affordable stand-alone triple vinyl LP (£70) and double CD (£23).
The previously unheard material isn’t a dramatic departure, but it does cast familiar songs in a fresh light. Spanning a five-year period that changed the course of pop, it starts with John Lennon’s 1964 girl-group homage Tell Me Why, and concludes with a rollicking instrumental version, all pounding Lennon piano, of Hey Bulldog, from 1969’s Yellow Submarine soundtrack. ‘It’s veering between your blues and your comedy,’ quips John.
Between those two, the other out-takes whisk us back to Beatlemania via the Lennon-sung ballads If I Fell and In My Life, the latter without its speeded-up baroque piano solo.
Where’s Ringo? The band pose at Chiswick House, in 1966, while promoting Paperback Writer
Strike a pose: The Fab Four lounge outside John Lennon’s house, in 1969
Deluxe reissue of a deluxe retrospective: The 12 LP vinyl box set of the Anthology Collection
I’ve Just Seen A Face, sung by Paul McCartney, is peppered with so much urgent acoustic guitar that Lennon suggests it should have been donated to UK skiffle king Lonnie Donegan.
Moving on to the band’s tempestuous later years, we get a live rehearsal of All You Need Is Love, a frenzied instrumental take on I Am The Walrus and a hard-rocking Baby, You’re A Rich Man, stripped of all its fancy effects.
Whatever disagreements existed outside the studio, The Beatles were a force of nature once the tape started running.
