Beyoncé continues to buck expectations while saddling up another incredible live music experience.

After kicking off her latest concert trek April 28, the 35-time Grammy winner played her fifth Southern California show of the “COWBOY CARTER TOUR” at Inglewood’s SoFi Stadium on Friday. Featuring a setlist of more than 40 songs split into eight acts, the tour supports Beyoncé’s 27-track album “COWBOY CARTER,” which was released in March 2024 and won Album Of The Year at the Grammys in February. Beyoncé can rest assured that her reputation as contemporary music’s most ambitious entertainer remains secure, as her soaring vocals and dynamic set pieces reiterate her performance abilities. However, the show felt narratively disjointed in places, largely due to misplaced inclusions of weaker tracks from the parent album.

Beyoncé made a simple entrance around 8 p.m. to the tune of “AMERIICAN REQUIEM,” as the center screen pulled apart to reveal her standing in an all-white cowboy ensemble. Delivering the anthemic opening number with sass and defiance, Beyoncé segued into “BLACKBIIRD” and a rendition of “The Star-Spangled Banner” while the stage beneath her feet cast projections from a screen built into the floor. The opulence of the stage – and the vibrant images its screens displayed throughout the night – allowed vital symbolic details to be easily visible, as Beyoncé threaded together historical influences to further her commentary on Blackness in America.

The opening act continued with the rousing battle cry “Freedom,” and Beyoncé made her first strut of the night down the center catwalk before concluding with a seamless mashup that formed one of the show’s greatest moments. Beyoncé melded the rollicking “YA YA” with the underrated “I AM…SASHA FIERCE” bonus track “Why Don’t You Love Me,” elevating both songs and electrifying the entire venue in a magical way. The singer-songwriter’s unrelenting vocal ferocity – in particular on an extended bridge, where she engaged in a call-and-response with the audience – set the stadium ablaze with passion. Beyoncé should immediately consider releasing a live recording of this mashup, as neither of these already-superb tracks has ever sounded better.

[Related: Album review: ‘COWBOY CARTER’ redefines genre through inventive renditions, collaborations]

The superstar wore a catsuit mimicking newspaper clippings in the second act, standing at a podium for “AMERICA HAS A PROBLEM” as her eldest daughter Blue Ivy Carter had her first dance solo of the night. Beyoncé then rolled through feminist hits such as “Formation” and “Diva” with each track’s signature choreography. A collection of ballads formed the third set, as Beyoncé donned a glittery bodysuit with a red plaid skirt while soulfully spotlighting tracks such as “ALLIIGATOR TEARS” and “FLAMENCO.” The highlight of this segment was Beyoncé’s younger daughter, Rumi Carter, appearing during the soothing lullaby “PROTECTOR.”

The concert’s most hedonistic act came next, with Beyoncé dressed in a bedazzled denim catsuit as she meandered to each corner of the massive stage during the raunchy “DESERT EAGLE,” playful “RIIVERDANCE” and sensual “II HANDS II HEAVEN.” She straddled a mechanical bull during the highlight “TYRANT,” spinning and gyrating from center stage while smiling goofily and embracing the track’s inherent cheekiness. Another medley – this time mixing “RENAISSANCE” numbers “PURE/HONEY” and “SUMMER RENAISSANCE” with “SWEET ★ HONEY ★ BUCKIIN’” – proved to be a heavenly combination bolstered by Beyoncé’s most energetic dance moves of the evening and the entire crowd grooving along.

If the first half of the show leaned heavily upon material from “COWBOY CARTER,” the second half of the concert lacked a consistent point of view. In the fifth act, Beyoncé swept through No. 1 hits such as “TEXAS HOLD ’EM,” “Crazy in Love,” “Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It)” and “Irreplaceable” from the top of a horned semitruck while clad in a tank top, denim shorts and fur boots. These tracks – alongside fan favorites such as “Love On Top” and the Maze & Frankie Beverly cover “Before I Let Go” – elicited thunderous applause from the audience as a rotation of red, blue and golden lights turned the venue into a dance party.

The remainder of the fifth act and the one-song sixth act were less successful and interrupted the show’s momentum. It was unnecessary for Beyoncé to fly over the crowd on a horseshoe-shaped lift during “JOLENE,” only to do so again a few minutes later when actually moving to the B stage for “CUFF IT.” Likewise, twangy “Lemonade” entry “Daddy Lessons” was tarnished by a pop-leaning mix and Beyoncé’s decision to sit rather than partake in the dancing. The sixth act struck a completely different tone, as Beyoncé solemnly sang the murder ballad “DAUGHTER.” Her color-changing Anrealage ball gown was a marvel but ultimately distracted from the inexplicable choice to dedicate a whole portion of the show to a relative dud in Beyoncé’s discography.

The most jarring transition was the switch to the concert’s penultimate section, with the one-two-three punch of “I’M THAT GIRL,” “COZY” and “ALIEN SUPERSTAR.” Dressed in a gold bodysuit, Beyoncé replicated the “RENAISSANCE WORLD TOUR” presentation of these tracks down to every step, prop and Kevin Jz Prodigy voiceover. The return to “RENAISSANCE,” as fun as it was, felt conceptually disconnected from the rest of the show and detracted from the authenticity and cohesion of the “COWBOY CARTER” message. More crucially, this segment was so strong and so memorable – with the crowd on its feet and the tracks sounding as fresh as when they were released in 2022 – that it created a wave of “RENAISSANCE” nostalgia, overshadowing the newer songs.

[Related: Concert review: Beyoncé showcases stunning skills at spectacular SoFi Stadium show]

The “RENAISSANCE WORLD TOUR” throwbacks continued with an extended ballroom and voguing dance battle. Then, Blue Ivy Carter delivered a meticulously choreographed replication of her mother’s 2006 hit “Déjà Vu.” The eighth act of the concert featured Beyoncé flying around the stadium in a red car while singing “16 CARRIAGES,” before she touched back down and closed the show with the hymn-like “AMEN” around 10:45 p.m. Despite the thrill of seeing Beyoncé be lifted around the stadium again, these two slower songs marked an uncharacteristically anticlimactic end to the concert after all of the magnetic moments that had come before.

As a whole, the “COWBOY CARTER TOUR” provides the dramatic, extravagant spectacle audiences have come to expect from stadium shows of this scale, while expanding the scope of Beyoncé’s ever-evolving artistry and reaffirming her vocal talent and musicianship. The concert – as with all of Beyoncé’s boundary-breaking work – is undeniably thought-provoking, unabashedly political and unbelievably personal, containing too many layered messages to be dissected in one sitting. This level of sophistication keeps Beyoncé in a league of her own.

However, like its parent album, the tour’s expansiveness led to a slightly unfocused final composition. The inclusion of so many songs from “RENAISSANCE” throughout the concert was completely invigorating. That said, the enduring strength of “RENAISSANCE” came at the occasional expense of the less distinctive “COWBOY CARTER” tunes. There is only so much showmanship Beyoncé can provide to try to overcome the hard truth that “COWBOY CARTER” is a great album – but not her best.

Even if there are some show-stopping detours to the disco, the “COWBOY CARTER TOUR” proves that Beyoncé can keep breaking the rules while transporting audiences to the rodeo.