Here’s a collab that feels like a flex on the part of both parties. On the latest single from her debut full-length The Hardest Part, Noah Cyrus joins forces with Death Cab For Cutie frontman Ben Gibbard. Recorded in Seattle at Gibbard’s studio, “Every Beginning Ends” is a soft acoustic ballad tinged with pedal steel, documenting the end of a romantic relationship. “You have to wake up every morning and choose to love someone,” Cyrus and Gibbard sing in harmony. “But I’m finding that harder the more that I’m falling out of love with you.” It reminds me of A.A. Bondy or some other sad-eyed post-Heartbreaker alt-country troubadour.

Cyrus shared this statement with Rolling Stone:

That was such a surreal experience. I’ve always been such a huge fan, so it was pretty daunting to get in the room with him, but once we got to work it all came very naturally. We talked about past relationships, failed relationships, our parents’ relationships, and relationships that have lasted forever. He told me his dad has a saying: “You have to wake up and choose to love someone every day,” and it sparked this conversational song about the twilight of a relationship and the reluctance to admit that something has run its course. I relate to that in many ways, not only with me, but also just with my parents’ relationship. Writing about that gave me more understanding.

In his own comments to RS, Gibbard compared Cyrus to his friend and collaborator Jenny Lewis:

I kept coming back to it and just basking in her brilliance. It’s easy to be mysterious. It’s easy to be aloof. It’s easy to be cool. It’s so much harder to be earnest, and it’s so much harder because she’s really opening herself up with a lot of these songs.

“Every Beginning Ends” arrives with a live in-studio video shot by Lance Bangs, which you can find below along with the official audio.

The Hardest Part is out 9/16 on RECORDS/Columbia.