Kanye West ft. Pusha T: 'Runaway'

It says something about the always-quick-moving world of pop that Kanye West's imminent return to the albums chart is being billed as a "comeback" - his last LP came out just two years ago. By way of explanation, West did briefly go to ground after his ill-advised VMAs antics. That incident, together with his Auto-Tune overuse, self-regarding guff about his own artistry and EXCITABLE BLOG POSTS!!! made him an easy target for mickey-taking. However, on his short Runaway film Kanye escapes that bind in the best possible way - by actually moving beyond parody in 35 minutes of tune-filled, full-on insanity ("Your girlfriend is really beautiful." "Thank you." "Do you know she's a bird?" "No, I never noticed that.").

Sliced from its bizarre flick, the single cut of 'Runaway' loses some - but not most - of its magic. Sparse beats and a few distant piano notes sustain Kanye's fragile singing before he raps some self-deprecating rhymes about his mad bad life: "She find pictures in my email / I sent this girl a picture of my d**k / I don't know what it is with females / But I'm not too good at that s**t." Clipse's Pusha T joins in on rapping duties and it all adds together to nudge West ever nearer that twisted genius tag he so covets. What's more, as the Runaway movie hints, there's even better to come from the full-length My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy later this month.