Fans of Beyoncé have complained after vinyl and CD editions of her album Cowboy Carter were delivered apparently with tracks that featured on the digital release missing.
Beyoncé’s eighth studio album – the second in a planned trilogy that began with her 2022 record Renaissance – was released on Friday and pre-orders for physical editions began to arrive the same day.
Over the weekend, buyers began reporting that five tracks present on the country album’s digital version were missing from the vinyl: Flamenco, Oh Louisiana, The Linda Martell Show, Spaghetti, and the standout Ya Ya which the Guardian described as a “fantastic early psychedelic soul-influenced stomp”.
The same tracks were reportedly missing from the CD except Flamenco. It was not clear whether this was the case for all pressings.
“It’s such a shame because Ya Ya is probably up there with my top five favourite songs at the moment … I’m quite miffed,” said one TikTok user.
“It appears that several songs from the album are NOT included in the LP. What is up with that?!”, wrote another fan on Reddit.
On Sunday, an announcement post on the Instagram feed for Beyoncé’s official online store was flooded with frustrated commenters calling for her to address the confusion. Many called for discounts or refunds on the US$40 vinyl edition.
Variety reported that fans who complained directly to the album’s retailer received an automated response that their concerns would be answered in three to four days due to a “higher volume of emails than usual”.
Many speculated that Beyoncé continued to change and add songs late into the process, and that the vinyl edition – which would have been pressed with a long lead time of “10 weeks to six months”, according to the BBC – contains an earlier version of the album.
The theory is bolstered by the spine of vinyl and CD copies, which reads “Act II – Beyincé – Beyoncé”. Some believe that Cowboy Carter was originally titled Beyincé – a reference to the musician’s ancestral surname which was misspelt as Beyoncé on her mother’s birth certificate due to a clinical error.
Beyoncé has previously tweaked the arrangement of albums after their release. On Renaissance, she removed an interpolation of Kelis’s song Milkshake as well as cutting a lyric containing a slur following controversy around both tracks.
Guardian Australia has contacted Sony Music for comment.
James Parker is a UK-based entertainment aficionado who delves into the glitz and glamour of the entertainment industry. From Hollywood to the West End, he offers readers an insider’s perspective on the world of movies, music, and pop culture.
