Beyoncé and Radiohead announce massive box set editions of iconic albums

Beyoncé and Radiohead will each release a collector’s edition box set of one of their most iconic albums, marking one year since the former’s Lemonade visual album and film and twenty years since the latter’s groundbreaking OK Computer. 

Radiohead teased fans with a mysterious video on Twitter yesterday, before announcing the "OKNOTOK" remastered re-release of their 1997 album. Restored from the original analogue tapes, the new release will feature the original twelve tracks, three unreleased tracks and eight b-sides, available digitally, on CD, on 3LP vinyl or as a US$130 vinyl box set.

The box set edition showcases the band’s idiosyncratic aesthetic and sense of humour, both of which crystallised in OK Computer’s bleak, wry commentary on consumerism and technology: 

Inside a black box emblazoned with a dark image of a burned copy of OK COMPUTER are three heavyweight 180 gram black 12" vinyl records and a hardcover book containing more than 30 artworks, many of which have never been seen before except by us, and full lyrics to all the tracks except the ones that haven’t really got any lyrics.

Under this weighty tome are yet more surprises: a notebook containing 104 pages from Thom Yorke’s library of scrawled notes of the time, a sketchbook containing 48 pages of Donwood and Tchock’s ’preparatory work’ and a C90 cassette mix tape compiled by us, taken from OK COMPUTER session archives and demo tapes.

Meanwhile, Beyonce’s How To Make Lemonade is a limited-run, made-to-order box set edition of last year’s wildly popular album LEMONADE that will be sold for US$300, and includes a massive coffee table book and first-pressing double vinyl:

The 600+ page hardcover book includes hundreds of never-before-seen photos from the making of LEMONADE, and shows the inspiration and themes behind some of the film’s most provocative and cryptic moments. The foreword is written by Dr. Michael Eric Dyson with poetry by Warsan Shire. Beyoncé’s personal writing and lyrics are interwoven throughout the book.

The made-to-order approach is one several artists have taken lately, including Kendrick Lamar. While it helps labels to more accurately gauge demand and avoid overproduction, it’s also a savvy way to concentrate sales of a physical format in a shorter time frame, which could make for an improved weekly chart performance.