The icy chill of the piano and naked beat sound fantastic with the soaring strings, but the concluding three-minute talk box is pointlessly long.

Conflicted, 'Runaway' serves as part warning, apology, and kiss-off as he begs his girl to cut and run from his self-destructive ways. John Legend dishes out a soulful hook for 'Blame Game', but nearly eight-minute tune overstays its welcome with an unnecessary, unfunny two-minute phone conversation with Chris Rock learning that his girl learned her moves from Kanye. The lengthy album only drags on in two, otherwise killer, songs. He attempts to talk his religious woman to the bedroom on the smooth 'Devil In A Blue Dress' over a wonderful sample from Smokey Robinson's 'Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow', while admitting, 'Hard to be humble while you struttin' on a jumbotron'. Fuelled by the fuzzed-out synth and melody borrowed from Black Sabbath's 'Iron Man', 'Hell Of A Life' feels inspired by the latest season of Entourage, as Kanye falls hard for a porn star and spins rapidly out of control as he plans their future. Kanye looks to shake free of the fake life on 'Lost In The World', as Bon Iver twists his creaky, wavering 'Woods' into an aching hook over a dance beat. Star-studded, shadowy orchestral banger 'So Appalled' begins turning up a nose at the ridiculously lavish lifestyle of an entertainment figure, but Jay-Z picks the second verse to vent frustration over being a hated rapper and the remainder of the unfocused song devolves into tales of drug dealing and affairs.

West spends a fair amount of time exploring the excesses that celebrity allows.

Kanye west dark fantasy first version