The Beatles fans were left calling the tracklist of Anthology 4 a “kick in the teeth”, and were left demanding more releases from the band’s archives.
Two extra discs with a total of thirty-six songs will be released on November 21 as part of a remastered rollout of The Beatles‘ demos and alternative songs. Songs completed around the time of the Anthology project, Free as a Bird and Real Love, will also feature. Now and Then, the Grammy Award-winning song from 2023, will also be featured as part of the 191-song set. Despite the vastness of the project, fans still want more from the archives. A few took to the r/Beatles subreddit and aired their disappointment at the lack of variety found on the upcoming extension of the project.
One user wrote: “Anthology 4 official tracklist with seventeen previously released tracks highlighted.” Some listeners have called the repeats a “kick in the teeth” for fans who were expecting rarities like Carnival of Light to appear on the tracklist. One fan wrote: “Absolute kick in the teeth to still not release the demos officially.”
Another agreed, though hoped these demos would be released at some point. They wrote: “Hopefully they are released in an album of their own.” Demos for Free as a Bird, Real Love, and Now and Then are yet to be released, with remastered versions of two of the three John Lennon-penned songs compiled in this upcoming release.
A third user suggested it was a “lazy” tracklist which threatened the very point of Anthology 4. They wrote: “Kind of lazy, to be quite honest. It makes one wonder the point of an Anthology 4 if it’s going to feature sketches of songs we’ve heard before. It should have been the unreleased songs and the new mixes.”
Some were left thoroughly disappointed by the collection of songs, with many highlighted tracks already featuring in other compilations. The “rooftop version” of Don’t Let Me Down, for instance, was featured on a live album which released around the same time as Peter Jackson’s Get Back documentary.
One fan wrote: “Really, we’re still doing releases of Don’t Let Me Down on the rooftop?” Another fumed: “Carnival of Light snubbed again!?” A third shared: “This is the least hyped I’ve been for a Beatles release in a while.”
Despite the fury of some fans, the recently released remastering of Free as a Bird has been hailed by some fans as an improvement over the original release.
One fan wrote: “It’s so interesting hearing John’s audio track cleared up, there’s a lot of little nuances to his vocals that I never noticed before.” Another agreed, adding: “I don’t think the audio quality is worse; it’s that it’s been cleaned up to the point the original weakness of John’s demo vocal is more exposed.
“(To be fair, this was a tape for his personal use and he wasn’t expecting to be shot to death by a psycho a couple of years later.)” A third shared: “It sounds much more intimate now. I feel like I’m in a very private moment, which, if you think about it, it really is. This is special because we hear a polished take of something that was never meant to be a polished take.
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