Beyoncé: Homecoming: The Live Album (4LP, limited edition box set) [COLUMBIA]

Why you'll love it

This limited box set spreads the whole performance across four LPs, with a 52-page book of photos from both Coachella weekends and printed sleeves for each record. The album scored 95 on Metacritic and debuted at No. 7 on the Billboard 200 before climbing to No. 4.

This edition

• 4LP set
• Limited edition box set
• 52-page photo book
• Printed sleeves
• Pressed in the EU

About the album

Fans had renamed the festival "Beychella" before she played a note. Beyoncé's Coachella headline slot, pushed back a year while she was expecting twins, finally came in April 2018, and she became the first Black woman to headline the festival. She built the show as a tribute to the HBCU homecoming: a full marching band, majorettes, a step show and some 100 dancers, with Solange, Jay-Z and Destiny's Child joining her on stage in front of 125,000 people.

The set plays like a greatest hits reimagined for brass and drumline. "Crazy in Love" and "Formation" come early, "Lift Ev'ry Voice and Sing" turns up twice, "Drunk in Love" and "Run the World (Girls)" hit hard, and Kelly Rowland and Michelle Williams return for "Lose My Breath," "Say My Name" and "Soldier." She threads in samples of Malcolm X, Nina Simone and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, and "Love on Top" sends everyone home smiling. Two studio bonus tracks follow: a cover of Maze's "Before I Let Go" and "I Been On."

The album arrived the same day as the Netflix film Homecoming, and the Los Angeles Times called it one of the greatest live albums ever. Two hours, a marching band and roughly 100 dancers; we've thrown staff parties with fewer people and considerably less choreography.

Also at Kops: more Beyoncé on vinyl · browse Hip Hop / R&B

Tracklist

Listen

On Parkwood / Columbia (cat# 19075959261), the 2019 live album.