Cold War Kids experiment with light and dark in their new "Lost That Easy" video.

While Cold War Kids' Nathan Willett has always had a way with twisted turns of phrase, on "Lost That Easy," from the California indie stars' latest Dear Miss Lonelyhearts, he's painted some particularly bleak and vivid imagery. The new video is a good match, with its stark use of darkness and color, and the spectral visage of Willett and a series of mysterious women.

Watch Cold War Kids' "Lost That Easy" video after the jump.

"A swollen tongue, a plastic gun, red burn from an orange sun," Willett sings over a minimal bass pulse that creeps like the soundtrack to an intense thriller. "These oil rigs, will crack and run. These palm trees will be chopped to a stump," he goes on, as the video introduces splashes of color, ghostly dancers hover in and out of focus, and the chorus launches into its mournful piano passage.

The clip, as the band explained on their Facebook page, was conceived and shot by Vern Moen on an overnight in California. Moen based the idea off of an unfinished horror film by the renowned '40s and '50s French director Henri-Georges Clouzot. We don't claim to be horror movie buffs or anything, but the video's psychological palate definitely wouldn't be out of place in a few of Clouzot's thrilling greats, like "Les Diaboliques."

And speaking of influence, the name of the band's record, Dear Miss Lonelyhearts, is itself a reference to another early 20th century classic: Nathan West's "Miss Lonelyhearts" -- a brutal satire of existential ennui during the Great Depression. See, who says you can't learn anything from that rock 'n' roll music?

+ Watch Cold War Kids' "Lost That Easy" video.

Photo credit: Downtown Records