David Bianculli

Their combined efforts make all the music sound so much better.

For the audio release of this new Beatles Anthology 2025, they've issued a brand new fourth CD set of recordings.

The remastering, on all four volumes, is a quantum leap forward.

Listen to John Lennon on Free as a Bird, and his voice no longer sounds distant and tinny.

It sounds like John Lennon, right there in the studio with the other Beatles.

Is the new TV documentary?

Absolutely.

There's something about the Beatles and the way they approach things that makes their output seem fresh no matter how many years have passed.

The music certainly is that way, but so is this documentary.

The first eight hours of the Beatles' anthology seem vibrant and exciting and not at all dated, even though it's the same content as before, only shinier.

And the final hour, full of cutting-room floor gems, is a treat.

In the original documentary, you saw and heard only one complete song from the Beatles on their first Ed Sullivan show appearance.

In this new hour of the Beatles' anthology 2025, you get another, along with plenty of studio outtakes.

And there's a lot of fascinating footage of Paul, George, and Ringo reuniting to record new Beatle tracks in the 90s, based on old demo recordings from John, along with a juicy origin story told by George of how the musical reunion came to be.

It's a story that wasn't told in the 1995 documentary.

Jeff Lynn ended up producing those new Beatle tracks, and you can see him working here with George, Paul and Ringo, and you witness the same sort of genial vibes that were on view in Jackson's Get Back.

These were men who, despite all the fame and fights and complicated lives, clearly loved one another.

The Beatles' anthology 2025 ends with the three of them at George's Friar Park estate lounging on the grass.

George is playing a ukulele, he and Paul are singing, and Ringo is slapping his legs in time.

Instead of brand-new interviews with Paul and Ringo, the documentary ends there.