Vinyl-loving Beyoncé fans were chagrined when the singer issued an LP version of her “Cowboy Carter” album in March that was missing five tracks found on the standard digital edition. Now, that seeming oversight is being rectified with a new vinyl edition of the collection that includes all the MIA tracks… but at a price.
Beyoncé’s webstore is now selling what it bills as the “official” vinyl version of “Cowboy Carter,” with the complete 27-song track list. Although, like the previous edition, it is a two-LP set, the cost of the new version has been bumped up to $59.98, a price point rarely seen for a non-audiophile-grade double-album. With a shipping cost of $13.72 and additional taxes, the complete version will cost fans close to $80.
That’s not sitting well with some buyers who previously paid the webstore a total of close to $60 for the first edition of the album as a pre-order, believing it would be the complete album, and now find themselves double-dipping to get the complete standard track list on vinyl. On Beyoncé’s Instagram account post about the new release, the first fan comment that comes up for some users is: “Bey… if this is the OFFICIAL, WTF did I just order earlier this year?”
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That version was billed as a “limited edition,” which would seem to distinguish it from this new, “official” edition… although it turned out not to be so limited, as copies are still readily available through retailers and through Beyoncé’s webstore. The latter site is still selling the abbreviated limited edition in blue, red and white colored-vinyl variants at $40 before taxes and shipping, while retailers like Amazon have a black vinyl edition with the truncated track list on sale as low as $33.
For the $20 more that the “official” LP costs than the “limited” version, fans won’t just get the restoration of the five missing tracks, but the promise of printed materials not in the first edition. A 40-page booklet “featuring never-before-seen images” is promised, as is a “folded, collectible 24″ by 36″ poster.” The double-LP also sports the cover of the singer atop a horse that was used for the standard digital editions, versus the alternate image of her in a standing position found on the first vinyl release.
The five tracks restored to the running order for this new release are “Flamenco,” “Oh Louisiana,” “The Linda Martell Show,” “Spaghetti” and “Ya Ya.”
The new edition is being sold as a pre-order, with a note on the check-out form that copies will begin to ship on June 28.
Although Beyoncé’s camp did not comment when a minor furor erupted over the missing tracks, speculation has been proffered about why the first vinyl edition was put out without the five songs. Length, obviously, was not the issue, since the new release proves the complete album fits on two LPs. But the lead time for most vinyl projects is months ahead of what is required for a CD, or obviously for a streaming version, which can be tinkered with literally almost to the last minute, so it’s most likely those five tracks still weren’t finished when the vinyl version was set to hit the presses (or at least some of them weren’t, since there are segues involved in that part of the album). It’s also possible that the album title hadn’t been finalized yet when the first vinyl edition went to press, as the words “Cowboy Carter” appeared nowhere on the packaging. The album jacket and other printed materials also lacked a track list, indicating the songs may still have been in flux at the time of manufacturing.
As of now, the “official” vinyl is only being sold through Beyoncé’s webstore, with no word of whether it will be eventually released to other retailers, as the shorter edition was several weeks after “Cowboy Carter” came out, sans the color variations.
Having to buy multiple versions of an album to get a “complete” version is an increasingly common issue for music fans. Although Taylor Swift has kept prices for her double-LP releases under $40, many fans bought four versions of the vinyl when different editions came out with four different bonus tracks — and even that ended in a less-than-complete version of the album on LP, as a subsequent digital edition added multiple tracks still not yet available in the vinyl format.
Vinyl controversies aside, “Cowboy Carter” has been one of the best-received albums of Beyoncé’s career, with nearly across-the-board critical acclaim and widespread predictions that this will be the project that lands the singer a long-awaited album of the year Grammy win. Read PvNew‘s review of the album as “an endless entertaining tour de force” here.
