Erykah Badu: Live

Erykah Badu went a long way toward justifying the quick release of Live only months after her debut album Baduizm’s success with just one song. She lifted the album into the highest tier of in-concert soul recording by trotting out the new “Tyrone,” a languid sound that she electrified by reading the riot act to a boyfriend most politely described as “errant.” The audience’s women sound nearly as delighted as those a generation earlier had when Marvin Gaye wailed “Distant Lover” on his own Live. This set also goes a long way toward amplifying Badu’s concerns, not only with a cover of “favorite singer” Chaka Khan’s “Stay,” but with public wrestling with her doubts and loneliness: Before unveiling another previously unrecorded number, “Ye Yo,” she reminds the audience (and herself) that “I’m a person and I represent you.”