Kanye West's Video for "808s" Track "Coldest Winter" Debuts

Over a year after the release of Kanye West's 808s & Heartbreak, the video for the album's penultimate track "Coldest Winter," Kanye's take on Tears for Fears' "Memories Fade," debuted this morning on director Nabil Elderkin's Vimeo page. As Rolling Stone previously reported, Elderkin, who helmed 808s' "Paranoid" and "Welcome to Heartbreak" videos as well, also photographed Kanye's massive Glow in the Dark tour and released a book of stunning images from the show. The video for "Coldest Winter" depicts a young woman running through a darkened forest as hooded creatures that look like those soul-sucking specters from the Harry Potter films pursue her. West does not appear in the video.

"It's pretty minimalistic," Elderkin told MTV. "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." Like the video for "Paranoid," the "Coldest Winter" clip features a new mix of the song, making the soundtrack of the video gloomier and more foreboding than the version that originally appeared on 808s. The video is available for purchase now on iTunes.

As Rolling Stone previously reported, director Spike Jonze teamed with West to create an awesome short film called "We Were Once a Fairytale" using 808s' "See You In My Nightmares."

Related Stories:
• Spike Jonze Talks Kanye's "We Were Once A Fairytale" Short Film
• Inside a Kanye West Tour: "Glow in the Dark" Photos, Backstage Tales
• Kanye West Unleashes "Paranoid" Video, Vows Return to Rap

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Song Stories

“Smells Like Teen Spirit”

Nirvana | 1991

"Smells Like Teen Spirit," named after a brand of deodorant marketed to girls, was Kurt Cobain's attempt to "write the ultimate pop song," he said, using the soft-loud dynamic of his favorite band, the Pixies. Cobain "had that dichotomy of punk rage and alienation," the song’s producer, Butch Vig, told Rolling Stone, "but also this vulnerable pop sensibility. In 'Teen Spirit,' a lot of that vulnerability is in the tone of his voice." Sadly, by the time of Nirvana's last U.S. tour, in late '93, Cobain was tortured by the obligation to play "Teen Spirit" every night. "There are many other songs that I have written that are as good, if not better," he claimed.

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