Anthology 4 is The Beatles’ 2025 album that extends the original 1990s Anthology music series with rare session material, restored archive tracks, new mixes of the reunion singles, and the band’s final single, “Now And Then”. Released on 21 November 2025, it is best understood as a new archival volume rather than a conventional studio album.
That distinction matters. Anthology 4 does not try to pretend there is a hidden Beatles album waiting in the vaults. Its real value is more precise: it fills gaps left by the first three Anthology albums, gathers selected material from later Super Deluxe editions, and connects the 1990s reunion recordings with the final 2023 chapter of “Now And Then”.
Key Facts
- Artist: The Beatles
- Title: Anthology 4
- Release Date: 21 November 2025
- Formats: 2CD, 3LP vinyl, digital, and part of the 2025 Anthology Collection box sets
- Label: Apple Corps / Capitol / UMe / Calderstone Productions
- Curated By: Giles Martin
- New 2025 Mixes: “Free As A Bird” and “Real Love”, mixed by Jeff Lynne
- Final Track: “Now And Then”, first released as a single in 2023
- New Notes: Kevin Howlett, with an introduction compiled from 1996 Derek Taylor interviews
- CD Packaging: Gatefold digisleeve with a 48-page booklet
- Vinyl Packaging: 3LP 180g black vinyl in a triple gatefold sleeve
What Beatles Anthology 4 Actually Is
Anthology 4 is the first new volume in The Beatles’ Anthology music series since the mid-1990s. The original three albums followed the band’s development from early home recordings and live performances through studio outtakes, demos, alternate takes, and the two reunion-era singles, “Free As A Bird” and “Real Love”.
The 2025 volume continues that idea with a different job. It gathers material from the later archive era, including 13 previously unreleased session outtakes dating from 1963 to 1969, selections from the Super Deluxe album campaigns, and three late Anthology-related recordings: “Free As A Bird”, “Real Love”, and “Now And Then”.
That makes Anthology 4 a bridge between two Beatles archive periods. It reaches back to the band’s original studio years, but it also reflects what became possible after the 1990s: deeper session research, better restoration, expanded album boxes, and modern audio separation technology.
Why Beatles Anthology 4 Matters
Anthology 4 matters because it tidies up the Beatles archive story without trying to rewrite it. The first three Anthology albums were major events in the 1990s, but they were created before the later wave of deluxe album boxes and before the technology that helped make “Now And Then” possible.
The 2025 album therefore has two purposes. First, it gives some previously scattered archive material a home inside the Anthology sequence. Second, it places “Free As A Bird”, “Real Love”, and “Now And Then” together as a final three-song thread from John Lennon’s home demos to completed Beatles releases.
That is the emotional centre of the album. The studio outtakes are valuable, but the ending is what gives Anthology 4 its shape. The album closes the circle from the mid-1990s reunion project to the last officially released Beatles song.
The 2025 Anthology Revival
Anthology 4 was released as part of a wider 2025 revival of The Beatles Anthology. The music collection was expanded to four volumes, with the full set issued digitally and physically as deluxe 8CD and 12LP collections. Across the complete 2025 music collection, the official release programme contains 191 tracks.
The wider project also connected with the restored and expanded The Beatles Anthology documentary series. That matters because the Anthology project was never only an album series. It was always a self-told Beatles history across television, music, and book form. Anthology 4 is the new music chapter in that larger archive story.
Free As A Bird, Real Love And Now And Then
The most important sequence on Anthology 4 is the final run of “Free As A Bird”, “Real Love”, and “Now And Then”. These tracks are not ordinary archive outtakes. They are completed Beatles recordings built from John Lennon home demos, with later contributions by Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr.
“Free As A Bird” and “Real Love” were originally released in the 1990s, during the first Anthology era. For Anthology 4, Jeff Lynne returned to create new 2025 mixes using de-mixed Lennon vocals. That gives the two songs a new place beside “Now And Then”, which was completed decades later using more advanced audio restoration and separation methods.
This is where the album earns its existence. It does not simply append “Now And Then” to an old series. It reframes the three Lennon-demo-based Beatles recordings as one final chapter, stretching from the 1990s reunion sessions to the band’s last official single.
The Session Outtakes
The outtakes on Anthology 4 range from 1963 to 1969, giving the album a wide but selective view of the band’s studio development. Early material such as “I Saw Her Standing There”, “Money”, “This Boy”, and “Tell Me Why” shows the Beatles still working in tight, direct performance mode.
By the middle of the tracklist, the focus shifts towards more complex studio work: “In My Life”, “Nowhere Man”, “Got To Get You Into My Life”, “Love You To”, “Strawberry Fields Forever”, “She’s Leaving Home”, and “I Am The Walrus”. These are not casual curiosities. They show how arrangements, overdubs, instrumental ideas, and production decisions were taking shape before the familiar master versions arrived.
The later tracks move into the White Album, Get Back, and Abbey Road period, with rehearsals, alternate takes, instrumental parts, and session fragments. That makes the album useful for listeners who want to hear process, not just polish.
Not A New Studio Album
The blunt truth is that Anthology 4 should not be sold in the mind as a lost Beatles studio album. It is not that. It is an archive album, and archive albums work by different rules. Some tracks are fascinating because they are incomplete, rough, or transitional. Others matter because they show how a famous recording changed before release.
That is not a weakness. It is the point. A finished Beatles album is judged by flow, intention, and final masters. Anthology 4 is judged by insight. Its value lies in what it reveals about the band’s working process and in how it connects the original 1960s sessions to the later Anthology story.
Beatles Anthology 4 Tracklist
Disc One
- I Saw Her Standing There (Take 2)
- Money (That’s What I Want) (RM7 undubbed)
- This Boy (Takes 12 and 13)
- Tell Me Why (Takes 4 and 5)
- If I Fell (Take 11)
- Matchbox (Take 1)
- Every Little Thing (Takes 6 and 7)
- I Need You (Take 1)
- I’ve Just Seen A Face (Take 3)
- In My Life (Take 1)
- Nowhere Man (First version – Take 2)
- Got To Get You Into My Life (Second version – unnumbered mix)
- Love You To (Take 7)
- Strawberry Fields Forever (Take 26)
- She’s Leaving Home (Take 1 – instrumental)
- Baby, You’re A Rich Man (Takes 11 and 12)
- All You Need Is Love (Rehearsal for BBC broadcast)
- The Fool On The Hill (Take 5 – instrumental)
- I Am The Walrus (Take 19 – strings, brass, clarinet overdub)
Disc Two
- Hey Bulldog (Take 4 – instrumental)
- Good Night (Take 10 with a guitar part from Take 5)
- While My Guitar Gently Weeps (Third version – Take 27)
- (You’re So Square) Baby I Don’t Care (Studio jam)
- Helter Skelter (Second version – Take 17)
- I Will (Take 29)
- Can You Take Me Back? (Take 1)
- Julia (Two rehearsals)
- Get Back (Take 8)
- Octopus’s Garden (Rehearsal)
- Don’t Let Me Down (First rooftop performance)
- You Never Give Me Your Money (Take 36)
- Here Comes The Sun (Take 9)
- Something (Take 39 – instrumental – strings only)
- Free As A Bird (2025 mix)
- Real Love (2025 mix)
- Now And Then
Album Cover And Artwork
The Anthology 4 sleeve follows the design language of the original Anthology albums rather than trying to create a separate 2025 identity. The pale background, bold black Beatles logo, archive collage strip, and simple “Anthology 4” title immediately place it inside the same official retrospective series.
That restraint is the right choice. This is not a new Beatles era with new visual branding. It is an archive volume, and the cover makes that clear. The collage suggests fragments, memory, documents, posters, and images being assembled into a broader story, which is exactly what the album does musically.
Fair Dealing Disclaimer: Album cover shown at low resolution for identification, commentary, and review under UK fair dealing. Rights remain with Apple Corps, Universal Music Group, Calderstone Productions, and the relevant rights holders.
Where To Find Beatles Anthology 4
Anthology 4 was released on 21 November 2025 as a standalone 2CD edition, a standalone 3LP vinyl edition, and as part of the expanded 2025 Anthology Collection box sets. The 2CD edition was issued in a gatefold digisleeve with a 48-page booklet, while the 3LP edition was pressed on 180g black vinyl and housed in a triple gatefold sleeve.
The album is also part of the wider 2025 Anthology Collection, which brings the original three Anthology albums together with the new fourth volume. For collectors, the box sets make most sense as the complete modern presentation. For listeners who already know the original albums, the standalone Anthology 4 release is the direct route to the new material.
Chart Performance
In the UK, Anthology 4 reached number 9 on the Official Albums Chart in December 2025. It also performed strongly on specialist charts, reaching number 5 on the Official Albums Sales Chart and Official Physical Albums Chart, number 4 on the Official Album Downloads Chart, and number 6 on the Official Vinyl Albums Chart.
Final Verdict
Anthology 4 is not essential in the same way as Abbey Road, Revolver, or Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. It is not meant to be. Its importance is archival, historical, and emotional. It shows process, gathers late archive-era material into the Anthology framework, and finally places “Free As A Bird”, “Real Love”, and “Now And Then” together.
That makes it more than a collector’s add-on. Anthology 4 is the missing modern chapter of the Anthology music series: imperfect by nature, but valuable because it lets listeners hear The Beatles being built, rebuilt, and finally completed across more than sixty years of recorded history.
Sources And References
- The Beatles – Official Anthology 2025 music overview.
- The Beatles Store – 2CD edition and tracklist.
- The Beatles Store – 3LP vinyl edition details.
- Official Charts – UK chart performance.
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