Bruce Springsteen pulled a Beyoncé this weekend by releasing his latest album without any warning and through only a limited point of distribution. The difference between Beyoncé and Bruce Springsteen's newest album, High Hopes, is that the R&B diva had full control of her release, whilst the Boss had no say in the unannounced release of his new album.

Bruce Springsteen
Springsteen seemingly had no knowledge of the release

Scheduled for release on 17 January, the album made a surprise appearance on Amazon on Saturday, 28 December, when the online retailers accidentally released it a few weeks early. That quick hiccup from Amazon didn't go unnoticed and the album had already been downloaded a number of times before the site noticed their mistake and took down the download link. They weren't quick enough to prevent the release from falling into the wrong hands though and soon the album was available to download on P2P torrent sites and other illegal download sites.

Amazon's secured servers are renowned for their tight security measures, so at this point it is unknown whether the leak was a system or a human error. The unannounced release may very well have been a controlled experiment by The Boss and his label to generate buzz for the album, but that seems unlikely considering how badly it backfired by ending up on P2P sites.

Watch the video for Bruce's cover of Suicide's 'Dream Baby Dream'

High Hopes is the 18th studio album released by Springsteen and is the result of ten years worth of recordings from the veteran singer and songwriter. The album features two songs featuring former E Street band members who have sadly passed away since recording began on the album ten years ago, including Danny Federici, who passed away in 2008 and Clarence Clemons, who died in 2011.

Bruce Springsteen live
The new album has been a long-time work-in-progress