The Cure's Robert Smith 'despairs' at iTunes

Medieval
Medieval

Crazy-haired The Cure frontman Robert Smith has gone medieval on iTunes and TMU (the man upstairs) because of an overpriced EP. iTunes are selling the Hypnagogic States EP - five Cure tracks remixed by more crazy-haired kids - for a whopping £7.99, and as Robert Smith so eloquently puts it: "IT'S NOT A FUCKING ALBUM!".

On the band's blog, Smith copied fans in on this strongly-worded email to the boss. You'll have to excuse the capitalisation. Obviously, nothing gets the point across quite like big, angry capital letters:

"DEAR…

I FUCKING DESPAIR
AGAIN

HYPNAGOGIC STATES EP IS NOW UP ON UK ITUNES...

5 TRACKS FOR £7.99?
FOR FUCKS SAKE!

AND THE PACKAGE IS COMPLETEY MISSING THE EXTRA BONUS TRACK (65DOS ALT REMIX OF "THE ONLY ONE")

SO
YOU CAN BUY THE FOUR REMIXES BY 30STM/AFI/MCR/FOB INDIVIDUALLY FOR 79P EACH...

BUT YOU ONLY GET THE 65DOS "EXPLODING HEAD SYNDROME" REMIX OF ALL FOUR SINGLES IF YOU PAY £7.99 FOR "THE ALBUM"...

IE YOU ARE BEING ASKED TO PAY £4.83 FOR THE 65DOS REMIX... !!!
WHO THE FUCK IS GOING TO PAY THIS AND NOT FEEL TOTALLY RIPPED OFF?

IT'S NOT A FUCKING ALBUM!
IT'S A 5 TRACK EP
AND YOU ARE SUPPOSED TO GET AN EXTRA FREE TRACK(THE 65DOS REMIX OF "THE ONLY ONE")IF YOU BUY IT AS A 5 TRACK EP
AND ITS SUPPOSED TO COST LESS IF YOU BUY IT AS A 5 TRACK EP THAN IF YOU BUY THE 5 TRACKS INDIVIDUALLY...

THAT IS WHAT WAS AGREED

THIS IS SO TOTALLY WRONG
I REALLY DO FUCKING DESPAIR

WHY IS IT SO INCREDIBLY DIFFICULT TO GET ANYTHING DONE RIGHT?

PLEASE FIX THIS NOW"

Robert finishes with a plea for fans to wait until the price goes down to £4.00 or less before purchasing. And purchase we should, because all profits go to the International Red Cross who must be over the moon about this letter.

The tracklisting

1. The Only One - remixed by Jared Leto
2. Freakshow - remixed by Jade Puget
3. Sleep When I'm Dead - remixed by Gerard Way and Julien-K
4. The Perfect Boy - remixed by Pete Wentz and Patrick Stump
5. Exploding Head Syndrome - remixed by 65daysofstatic

Tom Porter worked on MusicRadar from its mid-2007 launch date to 2011, covering a range of music and music making topics, across features, gear news, reviews, interviews and more. A regular NAMM-goer back in the day, Tom now resides permanently in Los Angeles, where he's doing rather well at the Internet Movie Database (IMDB).