“Runaway”, the album’s emotional center, debuted at this year’s VMA’s, where it served as a subtle retort to Taylor Swift’s condescending and much hyped “I-Forgive-Kanye” moment. Kanye is one of the great innovators of the sung-rap-song movement that has dominated urban radio the last few years, but here he takes it to new extremes. Built on a heartbreakingly lonely piano loop, the song finds Kanye bemoaning his personality flaws and features a tight verse from Clipse MC Pusha T. But what sets it apart is the false ending. Well past the five minute mark the music gives way, only to return with that same piano loop and Kanye West going bananas with his vocoder for about four minutes.
