Watch Ellie Goulding's Touching "Army" Video

On Thursday, British pop star Ellie Goulding released the music video for "Army," a soaring power ballad lifted from her latest album, Delirium. The touching black-and-white clip begins with a hand-written note from the 29-year-old "On My Mind" hit-maker that reads, "For my best friend Hannah, and my incredible fans." When "Army" premiered at the end of October 2015, Goulding opened up about the inspiration for its lyrics on Instagram: "I realised that I had focused a lot of writing on past relationships and it hit me I had never written about my best friend," she explained. "We've been deliriously happy together, deliriously tired and deliriously sad together. I wanted to show our friendship for what it really is — honest, real, electric."

The "Army" visual is mostly made up of concert footage and scenes of Goulding goofing around with Hannah (and other assorted pals) while out on the road. Just like the song, it's an empowering ode to female friendship — which isn't something we come across very often in pop music. When "Army" debuted, Bustle's Loretta Donelan noted how rare (and refreshing) it was to hear a pop tune from a female artist that wasn't about a man — and I couldn't agree more. Check out the "Army" vid below.

In fact, "Army" is one of the few mainstream pop releases that passed the Bechdel Test (as adapted for music by Pitchfork) in 2015. Obviously, women have a lot more to sing about than dudes; however, I suspect they often experience a tremendous amount of outside pressure (from managers, record labels, etc.) to primarily write and/or record songs that fit within extremely narrow confines. Hopefully, "Army" will be sent to top 40 radio in the United States at some point in the near future. Believe me, the airwaves could use some variety!

"Army" and Delirium are available on iTunes and Spotify now.

Image: EllieGouldingVEVO/YouTube