The Beatles: Anthology 4 (Apple/Universal, 2 CDs, 118 min.). This compilation album of mostly previously released songs by The Beatles will delight fans of the British band. The 36 tracks are part of the multimedia retrospective series “The Beatles Anthology” and were conceived as an expansion of the series' 30th-anniversary remastered re-issue. As with the other three earlier volumes, it features outtakes from The Beatles’ recording sessions between 1963 and 1969.

While technically there is little really new here, it does have new remixes of the post-Beatles releases “Free as a Bird” (1995), which sounds better here, and “Real Love” (1996) through machine-learning audio restoration technology that extracted the late John Lennon’s vocals from his demos. A similar technology was used on the most recent track, 2023’s “Now and Then,” which also is included here. All three of the newer tracks have been remixed by Electric Light Orchestra’s Jeff Lynne.

The album contains 13 previously unreleased tracks, alongside 23 tracks that had been previously released. There is a previously issued take of “I Saw Her Standing There” that has mixed-up pronouns, and a take of their cover of “Money” without producer George Martin’s overdubbed piano bits. Martin’s son, Giles Martin, produced this album.

Many of the tracks have studio chatter, such as the members discussing vocal harmonies on “Tell Me Why.” George Harrison’s “I Need You” is included in a take with him on Spanish guitar. In fact, there are several good Harrison performances, including on “Love You To,” with Paul McCartney on vocal harmonies, and an excellent alternate take of his “While My Guitar Gently Weeps.”

The take of “Got to Get You into My Life” includes the vocal layering that was erased later, and Ringo Starr’s drumming stands out on the take of “Strawberry Fields Forever.” Instrumental numbers include “She’s Leaving Home,” “The Fool on the Hill,” overdubs for “I Am the Walrus,” “Something” played only by strings, and an early attempt at “Hey Bulldog.”

There is studio fun on “Baby, You’re a Rich Man,” a BBC rehearsal of “All You Need Is Love,” a 43-second jam of “(You’re So Square) Baby I Don’t Care” and the first rooftop performance of “Don’t Let Me Down.”

Another track with a lot of chatter is a rehearsal for “Octopus’s Garden” and McCartney improvises on “Can You Take Me Back?” More vocal playing around occurs during the start of “You Never Give Me Your Money.”

Another plus of the release is the 48-page booklet, with extensive notes and anecdotes about each track and vintage photos. Grade: music and booklet A

Def Leppard: Diamond Star Heroes Live from Sheffield (Mercury Studios/Universal, Blu-ray or DVD + 2 CDs, 88 min. each version). Celebrating 47 years as a band, the rockers performed in their home town of Sheffield on May 22, 2023 to kick off their European tour. It was their second stadium concert ever at Bramall Lane. The solid show contains 17 selections, performed before some 40,000 fans.

A special vinyl version is pressed on red, white and black splatter, the home kit colors of Sheffield United FC, who play their home matches at Bramall Lane.

The show included classics “Photograph” and “Pour Some Sugar on Me” in the final quartet, as well as the U.K. live debuts of “Take What You Want” and “This Guitar,” the latter dedicated to the band’s late guitarist Steve Clark. “Take What You Want,” which features a blistering guitar solo by Phil Collen, opens the show. It is followed by “Let’s Get Rocked,” with singer Joe Elliott inviting the crowd to sing along. Collen does another good solo on “Foolin’.”

The band performs before a huge video screen, which is filled with band photos during “Photograph.” Other highlights include the ballad “Love Bites,” “Promises” with Collen again leading, the crowd singing along to “Rocket,” Rick Allen’s drum solo during “Switch 625,” and the slower, but still heavy “Bringin’ on the Heartbreak.” Vivian Campbell plays acoustic guitar on the new “This Guitar,” which has the line: “This guitar saved my life.” Allen’s drums start “Rock of Ages,” which has another Collen guitar solo. Grade:concert A

Dream Theater: The Studio Albums 1992-2016 (Atlantic/Rhino, 14 CDs, 955 min. 11 secs.). This set brings together nearly 25 years of groundbreaking music by the Grammy Award-winning progressive metal trailblazers. It holds 12 albums – a similar set released in 2011 held 10 albums – namely, “Images and Words” (1992), “Awake” (1994), “Falling into Infinity” (1997), “Metropolis Pt. 2: Scenes from a Memory” (1999), “Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence” (2002), “Train of Thought” (2003), “Octavarium” (2005), “Systematic Chaos” (2007). “Black Clouds & Silver Linings” (2009), “A Dramatic Turn of Events” (2011), “Dream Theater” (2013) and “The Astonishing” (2016).

Dream Theater has helped define the sound of modern progressive metal while, selling more than 12 million albums worldwide. The set begins with the band’s gold-certified 1992 breakthrough, “Images and Words,” featuring the Top 10 hit “Pull Me Under.” Their prolific decade included new creative heights, including “Metropolis Pt. 2: Scenes from a Memory,” one of the greatest concept albums in progressive-rock history. The band continued in the 21st century with the acclaimed works “Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence” and “Octavarium,” both of which expanded Dream Theater’s musical range and cemented their reputation for unmatched technical precision and ambition.

“Black Clouds & Silver Linings” marked the end of an era as it was the final studio album with founding drummer Mike Portnoy. The record included towering epics, such as “The Count of Tuscany,” and deeply personal writing on “The Best of Times” and “A Nightmare to Remember.” With “A Dramatic Turn of Events,” Dream Theater began a new chapter with drummer Mike Mangini. The album earned the band its first Grammy nomination for “On the Backs of Angels.”

Their self-titled “Dream Theater,” in 2013, debuted in the Top 10 of more than 20 countries and earning another Grammy nomination for “The Enemy Inside.” The album combined intricate musicianship with renewed energy. The final album in the set, “The Astonishing” expands the band’s scope into cinematic territory with a two-act rock opera. Orchestrated and expansive, it embodied the ambition that has long defined Dream Theater’s approach of melding storytelling, virtuosity and scale into an immersive listening experience. “The Astonishing” was the first Dream Theater album to debut at No. 1 on the Billboard Rock chart. Grade: box set A+

Andrea Bocelli: The Celebration 30th Anniversary (Mercury Studios/Universal, 2 Blu-rays or 2 4k Ultra HDs or 2DVDs + 2 Blu-rays, 279 min. each version). The Blu-ray set, reviewed here, was filmed at the Teatro del Silenzio (Theatre of Silence) in Lajatico during three nights in 2024. The shows marked the classical star’s 30th year as an artist. His appearance in his home of Tuscany features a star-studded lineup of special guests performing songs that have been the pillars of his career. There are two shows, "The Celebration" and "30 Years of Musical Inspiration," totaling more than four-and-a-half hours of performances.

The staging includes a tall sundial centerpiece in the middle of a lake, and 500 drones which lift into the sky in three breathtaking moments. Bocelli also is joined by an 80-piece orchestra, a cast of over 200 musicians and family and friends including Ed Sheeran, Jon Batiste, Shania Twain and Brian May. The second show is more family-oriented, with seven of the 20 performances – including six in a row starting in the middle – featuring family members, including his son, recording artist Matteo Bocelli.

The first disc’s show contains 28 numbers, only four of which do not feature a guest. There are some good performances, but also some questionable guest choices.

Good are “Miserere” with Zucchero, the teaming with legends Luciano Pavarotti and Placido Domingo on “Notte ‘e Piscatore” and with Jose Carreras on “Musica Proibita,” a bright “Funiculi funicula,” “Moon River” in English with Sofia Carson, and “Perfect Symphony” with songwriter Sheeran, with Bocelli singing his part in Italian. Also good are “Vivo Per Lei” with Giorgia, “Hallelujah” with young Virginia Bocelli and a version of Queen’s “Who Wants to Live Forever,” with Bocelli singing the title line, while being joined by Queen’s Brian May on the majority of the vocals and some late electric guitar.

In the questionable category are actor Johnny Depp playing acoustic guitar on “En Aranjuez Con Tu Amor,” as a tribute to Jeff Beck; actor Russell Crowe singing “Take This Waltz,” with Bocelli just on piano; Sofia Vergara doing absolutely nothing during “Bésame Mucho”; and actor Will Smith, who just talks the lyrics to “You’ll Never Walk Alone.”

The first disc also contains scenes of Bocelli’s wine country home and a feast that includes many of the performing guests. There are six other brief return trips to the farm scattered throughout the concert footage.

In the second show, on disc two, eight of the songs are the same, although one is a duet the second time. Placido sings a different song and Celine Dion’s part on “The Prayer” is through video. Bocelli and May do “Because We Believe” this time.

The second disc also has five bonus performances, all without Bocelli. Grade: concerts B+

Ultravox: The Collection (Chrysalis, CD). This is a remastered version of Ultravox's 1984 best of compilation, also called “The Collection,” which sold more than 2 million copies worldwide, including 3x platinum in the U.K. It gathers the band’s first 14 singles released between 1980 and 1984. This edition adds five more recent songs (1986-2012), four in radio edits and one in a single edit.

The most notable tracks include the iconic “Vienna,” the anti-nuclear war anthem “Dancing with Tears in My Eyes,” the new wave classic “All Stood Still,” “Hymn,” “The Voice” and “Reap the Wild Wind.”

The British new wave band was formed in London in April 1974 as Tiger Lily. Between 1980 and 1986, they scored seven top ten albums and 17 top 40 singles in the U.K., the most successful of which was their 1981 hit “Vienna.”

From 1974 until 1979, singer John Foxx was the frontman and the main driving force. Foxx left the band in March 1979 to embark on a solo career and Midge Ure took over as lead singer, guitarist and frontman, after he and keyboardist Billy Currie worked on the studio project Visage, part of the New Romantic wave. Ure revitalized Ultravox and steered it to commercial chart success until 1987, at which time the group disbanded.

A new line-up, led by Currie, formed in 1992, but achieved limited success with two albums failing to chart and one solitary single reaching No. 90 in the U.K. The band's best-known line-up of Currie, Ure, bassist Chris Cross and drummer Warren Cann re-formed in 2008 and performed a series of shows in 2009 and 2010, before releasing a new studio album, “Brilliant” in 2012. In November 2013, Ultravox performed as special guests on a four-date U.K. arena tour with Simple Minds, with those shows proving to be Ultravox's last, as in 2017 both Currie and Ure indicated that Ultravox was done.

There also is a 4CD and 2 Blu-Ray expanded edition, limited to 5,000 units worldwide, that adds 14 more singles, alternative and unreleased versions from 1986 through 2024, and 10 newly created extended versions mixed by Ure, Steven Wilson, Blank & Jones, and others. It also collects all the band’s B-sides for the first time, The Blu-Ray discs have more than four hours of footage, featuring the 23 the groundbreaking promotional videos and a collection of 27 of their BBC TV Top of the Pops and live performances. It also includes two 20-page booklets with previously unseen photos, images and lyrics. Grade: single CD A-