Beyoncé’s Cowboy Carter has been out for a few days now, but some fans are unhappy as the vinyl editions of they album they ordered are starting to arrive: There are reports that not all of the album’s songs are included in the physical edition.
What Songs Are Missing From Beyoncé’s Cowboy Carter Vinyl?
As fans have noted (like ones in this Reddit thread), “Spaghettii,” “Flamenco,” “The Linda Martell Show,” “Ya Ya,” and “Oh Louisiana” are reportedly not included on the currently available vinyl pressings of the album. The same is also reportedly true for the CD version except for “Flamenco,” which is on the CD.
Cowboy Carter is 79:03 in total length. A standard 33 RPM vinyl record can contain up to 25 minutes of audio per side, so 50 minutes per record. However, Cowboy Carter is a 2LP release, so across the LPs, there would be more than enough room for the complete album’s running time in the 100 minutes of total space. Meanwhile, CDs can hold up to 80 minutes of audio, so the album’s length shouldn’t be an issue in that format either.
As some have pointed out (and as unboxing videos like the one below show), the tracklist of the songs actually included on the vinyl and CD editions isn’t printed anywhere on them. What does appear on these physical releases is a QR code, which, when scanned, brings you to music.beyonce.com. This page displays the full Cowboy Carter tracklist, not the truncated tracklists from the physical releases. The tracklist also isn’t visible anywhere on Beyoncé’s online shop. So, essentially, fans had no way of knowing which songs would be excluded from these releases before buying them, or that any would be cut at all.
@anyiahszn Happy cowboy carter weekend to those who celebrate || #beyonce #cowboycarter #beyoncevinyl #vinylunboxing #cowboycarterbeyonce #texasholdem #vinylcollection #beyoncechallenge #beyoncerenaissance
As for why this happened, some theorize that last-minute changes were made to the album and re-pressing the vinyl would have been impractical or too costly. Some upset fans said they plan to file a chargeback or dispute for the transaction.
Cowboy Carter is out now via Parkwood/Columbia Records. Find more information here.