Kanye West is not-so-surprisingly absent from his latest music video “Coldest Winter,” a track from 808s & Heartbreak. ‘Ye replaced his own mug with a cleavage-baring, Leona Lewis look-a-like in the spooky, surreal vid (which features a new remix of the original song). It’s a smart move—Kanye haters can still consider him technically “in hiding”, while Kanye enthusiasts get another arty, visually stunning video from the hitmaker. Watch it after the jump.

Kanye West – “Coldest Winter”

Take Sleepy Hollow, add the Dementors from Harry Potter, multiply that by New Moon and subtract the wussy teenage vampires, and you have the Nabil Elderkin-directed video.

Nabil previously directed Kanye’s “Paranoid” and “Welcome to Heartbreak” videos, but he feels this one was the most challenging of all his collaborations with the rapper. He tells MTV:

“It’s pretty minimalistic,” he said. “It’s slow and very visual. I just wanted to catch the vibe of the song and not get too literal. Because the lyrics are very close to Kanye and go much deeper than the video goes, obviously hearing the song you know it’s very emotional.”

Others feel a bit underwhelmed with the clip, but we find it hauntingly beautiful. West always goes above and beyond when it comes to his videos, and the chilly creepiness of “Coldest Winter” is no exception. No wonder the man is rarely modest—he can always back up his ego-boosting blog entries.

As much as we love the vid, though, we’re unclear why ‘Ye is still releasing singles and videos from his 2008 album—to get us pumped for his next release, Good Ass Job? Or maybe “Coldest Winter” was supposed to be promoted months earlier, but the VMA incident made Kanye’s team hold off on putting it out?

Or maybe West just felt like making another damn video and nobody’s gonna tell the man “no.”