Ellie’s gonna leave no speck of sadness sand unturned. #Metaphors

Standing in stark contrast with past club bangers like “I Need Your Love” and “Lights,” Ellie Goulding‘s new music video for “How Long Will I Love You” is a ballad that’s tender and gentle enough to be included on the About Time soundtrack.

Mixing clips of Ellie staring wistfully out to sea with scenes from Rachel McAdams’ rom-com, the Mike Sharpe-directed video seems specifically engineered to trigger the triangulated “’90s Hugh Grant movies/ ‘The Notebook’/ Coldplay‘s ‘Yellow’” nerve in my brain’s emotional core, so if you don’t mind…

Watch Ellie Goulding’s “How Long Will I Love You” video after the jump.

The lyrics have a simple playground rhyme quality to them: “How long will I love you/ As long as stars are above you/ Longer if I can/ How long will I need you / As long as the seasons need to/ Follow their plan.” The song’s vulnerability is further heightened when these words are coupled with the almost music box-like fragility of the instrumental.

It’s funny how Ellie’s vocal styling isn’t all that different in a mellow tune like “How Long Will I Love You” than it sounds in one of her heavier hitters like “Burn.” Switching so effortlessly from soft to loud and back again — that’s definitely not an easy feat to pull off. Just imagine the lead singer of GWAR trying to pull of his best Julie Andrews impression… Let’s not, and say we did.

+ Watch Ellie Goulding’s “How Long Will I Love You” video.

Photo credit: Polydor/ GIF: Melbourne On My Mind