Amid all the acclaim for Beyoncé’s Cowboy Carter, there is a growing controversy among fans as the album is missing some key tracks in its compact disc and vinyl form.
Fans who preordered physical copies Cowboy Carter are turning to social media and message boards like Reddit to complain that their albums are missing five tracks that were on the digital version: The album standout “Ya Ya,” as well as “Spaghettii,” “The Linda Martell Show,” “Oh Louisiana,” and “Flamenco” are all excised from the vinyl version.
The preordered CD is also missing those first four songs but includes “Flamenco,” which has spawned another complaint: The “limited edition” compact disc version promised the inclusion of an “additional song,” with many fans assuming it was an unreleased, exclusive bonus track. Instead, the “additional song” appears to just be “Flamenco,” a track already on the digital version of the album.
The truncated track list on the physical copies entirely removes what Rolling Stone called “the biggest feature on the album,” country pioneer Linda Martell. “She first appears at the beginning of ‘Spaghettii,’ calling genres ‘a funny little concept” before Bey goes full trap-country on that track with fellow genre-bender Shaboozey,” Brittany Spanos’ review states. “But after Martell’s appearance on ‘The Linda Martell Show,’ the album devolves into fun chaos, with some of Beyoncé’s weirdest and most eccentric musical choices.”
Among those “eccentric” songs is the instant classic “Ya Ya,” where she “channels Tina Turner by way of James Brown with covers of Nancy Sinatra and the Beach Boys,” and the Chuck Berry-sampling “Oh Louisiana,” both of which were cut from the physical versions.
The BBC speculates that, due to the months-long wait for vinyl pressing plants, the five omitted songs were likely added to the track list after the albums were already pressed, and that even the Cowboy Carter album title itself was a last-minute change: The spine and artwork of the preordered physical copies bear the title act ii: Beyincé, with no mention of Cowboy Carter outside of a sticker applied to sealed copies.
While some fans — many of whom ordered multiple copies of the limited-edition, one-time-only pressings — have turned to social media demanding refunds, Beyoncé’s webstore didn’t post a vinyl or CD track list prior to the album’s arrival Friday. (The physical versions themselves also don’t feature a track list, instead including a QR code that reroutes listeners to album notes and credits.)