Ellie Goulding braces for a breakup in "Figure 8."

Sometimes life can imitate art and art can imitate life, but in Ellie Goulding's case, it may be a little bit of both. "Figure 8," the latest single from her second album, Halcyon, is a personal tale of a relationship ending and wanting to hold on to what once was. With Ellie just splitting from EDM superstar Skrillex, one could mayyybe guess what this song was inspired by. And though it was officially recorded pre-breakup, we couldn't help but notice that this track has some major dubstep influences on it. Musical close reading FTW!

Watch Ellie Goulding's "Figure 8" video after the jump.

In the kinda creepy clip, the beautiful-with-bedhead Ellie (if only we were all so lucky) is practically a ghost in the house she used to share with her man and time marches backward as she remembers some of the good and bad times. Ellie's shown fitfully singing in an all-red ensemble beneath layers of red satin sheets (seriously, we have Taylor Swift to thank for all this red!), and aside from Ellie's levitating near the end, we're totally left wondering how true-to-life this clip really is. Maybe a little, but we can't really ever know (our powers of close reading only take us so far). Besides, real life is often stranger than fiction, right? Save for the having magical powers part.

+ Watch Ellie Goulding's "Figure 8" video.

Photo credit: UMG